This is How Politicians have Messed up Our Health Care System …

A Minister is the leader of the administration; after we elect political parties to power they form a government. Along with the Chief/Prime Minister a Health minister is also sworn in, he is in charge of upgrading, developing, and maintaining our Healthcare System with whatever budget he is allotted. Most of the money is used to keep the current Health care system running, although as we are all aware that the entire administration is corrupt from top to bottom due to which no amount of taxpayers’ money is spent without a range of people having their cut at every stage of the expenditure. Incidentally, it is the Minister who can control the menace of corruption in his department only if he has the ‘Will’ power. Tenders are floated contractors, bureaucrats, ministers make sure they are benefited it doesn’t matter if the work order is properly executed. For example, the Health Department issues a work order to a contractor for making a new ICU ward in a hospital, the contractor finishes his work; officials of the health department clear his work and make the payment. All the faults in his work are sidelined since the officials receive their cut. No one is accountable if the new ICU ward is actually working or not. There is no mechanism to ascertain if the money spent actually reaches the target, here again, the Minister is responsible; complete lack of transparency and accountability in this process makes sure that the entire health infrastructure is in shambles. New hospitals are announced but never finished on time; if they do get completed there is no accountability for the services provided in that Hospital. No one is bothered about the required number of beds, doctors and health staff in the ratio of the population density in that region. Hence most of the government health infrastructure is overburdened and overstretched, people have no other option but to choose private hospitals instead and get bankrupt while getting the treatment. Ministers keep complaining that the budget allotment for the health department is very limited compared to other departments and hence they are not able to improve the health infrastructure, unfortunately, there is no word on the leakage due to the corruption in the process and hence it’s obvious that no amount of budget will improve the health care system.

It's always the ‘Politicians’ who are responsible for all the bad things happening in our country, this is what everyone wants to hear. Most of you are reading this blog because of the headline. We get some weird satisfaction when we blame everything on the politicians and completely forget that it was ‘US’ who elected them and gave them the power to rule this country.



It starts with the ‘vote’ on that day which comes every 5 years. We vote, we click a selfie with that inked finger and a government is formed, that’s it! our responsibility is over. Unfortunately, no real effort or interest is taken by the government to improve our health infrastructure mainly because as citizens we never demanded it, we voted on the basis of our caste, religion, or just for the sake of voting and choosing a lesser evil. We all know how corrupt most Politicians and the bureaucracy is, but again we have accepted corruption as a way of life; Generations after generations we have been ignoring and turning our back on corrupt governance and dirty politics. Citizens of other countries are not dying because of lack of Healthcare but due to covid-19. On the other hand in India, most of the people are dying due to insufficient or no healthcare at all. We are struggling with a basic thing like providing oxygen for breathlessness in covid-19 patients. It's not that we are not aware of the horrible health care system in our country; we all have been there during the non-covid times but like all the other important issues we turn our back and ignore it since we personally do not need it. This habit of walking away from the problem of corruption, transparency, and accountability in our political and administrative system is the reason why we are suffering now in this Pandemic. Most of us will curse and blame the politicians for this crisis but if you understand the system no one else is responsible for this mess other than ‘US’. Our participation in democracy is only limited on the day of voting whereas citizens in other countries pour onto the street in thousands and demand what they deserve. In India, only people of a particular cast come on the streets and demand reservations which they get it eventually. This is the beauty of democracy ‘you get it when you demand it’ even if it is 'reservation' or a good strong law to stop crime against women.



Transparency and accountability, are not some fancy words used by activists around the world these words could mean life or death which this pandemic has proved. This is the right time to take responsibility and not blame the system, all the friends, families or acquaintance we have lost in this pandemic is due to our ignorance and our complete lack of participation in democracy. Unless each one of us personally does not feel responsible for the deaths of citizens due to lack of basic Health Care facilities we will never able to fix the problem. Our Country is Our Responsibility!