Jun 24, 2012

Crowdsourcing Supervision Of Healthcare Delivery Services in India

Hello ? Where is the Doctor ?

The days of free lunches for doctors in government services will soon be over, if this attendance crowd-sourcing becomes the norm all over India.

Thousands of Indian primary health centers (PHC) work without doctors because there are none posted. Thousands more remain idle because the doctor and other medical staff simply remain unavailable. Absenteeism is a very big curse in the delivery of public health services in India. People dependent on the primary health care centers expect that the doctor is absent. Since all attendances of medical staff is verified at the PHC itself and generally by the absentee doctor himself, there has never been an official check on this culture of 'furlough'. A trial of giving supervisory powers to local 'Sarpanch' (village headman) to ensure attendances of medical staff didn't work out as well as hoped for.

Now Technology and crowd sourcing promises to do what no government administration has managed to do yet. Ensure the presence of medical staff on duty. How Mobile Phones Are Repairing India's Broken Healthcare System 
The Indo-Deutch Project Management Society (IDPMS) tracks SMS messages reporting staff absences sent by local patients, and maps the regions and facilities where absenteeism is prevalent. These maps are then made available to locals and policymakers. 

Presently this experiment is limited to Karnataka. But as and when results emerge, this simple system to involve the citizens to ensure the attendances of medical staff at rural PHCs is bound to have a number of effects on the Indian public healthcare setup. No doubt, the idea will be vilified and rubbished by the entrenched bureaucracy and status-quoist medical staff of government services. But this SMS enabled collaborative supervision of public health services can be a very good tool for improving healthcare delivery by making people more involved in ensuring they get the healthcare services they deserve and pay taxes for.

image: www.canada.com

8 comments:

  1. Sell gift cardsNovember 1, 2012 at 12:05 PM

    Indian government has done a great job against swine flu. This article is about influenza viruses in pigs.later on the citizens to ensure the attendances of medical staff at rural PHCs is
    bound to have a number of effects on the Indian public healthcare
    setup.

    ReplyDelete
  2. women healthDecember 7, 2012 at 12:05 AM

    Such article are about influenza bacterias upon pigs.Thank you for sharing..

    ReplyDelete
  3. EasylifeappApril 25, 2013 at 1:42 AM

    I agree with author Absenteeism is a very big curse in the delivery of public health
    services in India. People dependent on the primary health care centers expect that the doctor is absent.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Reve SystemApril 25, 2013 at 1:42 AM

    Grate post to thousands of Indian primary health centers (PHC) work without doctors because there are none posted.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ryditya909August 1, 2013 at 3:21 AM

    excellent article, very exciting and informative

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