Healthcare issues in Aisa in 2020 – The 20th century has been the dawn breaker for the long lost healthcare challenges in Asia. The healthcare sector has taken a big leap from poor healthcare infrastructure to decent reforms and expert medical facilities. According to the Economic Times report, governments have shown serious determination for improved healthcare through an investment of $2.66 trillion.
The increasing aging population of the elderly population is another proof of the ambitious healthcare sectors. It is expected that by 2030 the demand for decent healthcare will increase by 71% as the number of successful medical recoveries and elderly people continues to grow.
Besides the medical schemes, the innovative industry of healthcare has evolved as another bright side of the challenges faced. 3D digital printing, stem cell technology, the invention of AI and online health services have given a push to healthcare startups. Many Asian countries, particularly the developing ones, have recognized the desperate need to quantify their healthcare systems, hence why incentives, R&D funding, aids, and financial assistance is now more prevalent than previous times.
Moreover, people are keener on learning and investing their services in public health sectors now. For example, the expertise of a doctor in Pakistan now also involves having an in depth analysis of his/her regional public health sector. Similarly, public health education has become a fundamental specialization in many higher institutes as well.
While a well-versed healthcare system in the near future seems like a likely milestone more than ever, unfortunately certain challenges stay standstill.
According to the WHO report in 2018 (revised in 2020), certain healthcare challenges are interconnected and require immediate attention on an international scale. It further stated how experts around the globe are failing to implement a fair balance of healthcare funds along with not recognizing the global climate shift as a big obstacle.
Despite endless discussions, there still remains a huge gap between a few ripples of healthcare reforms and actually achieving full-fledged healthcare goals on an industrial scale.
Challenges for Healthcare Sector
Current Healthcare issues in Asia 2020 – To understand the current situation of healthcare systems, let’s look at the top 5 challenges for the healthcare sector.
Healthcare is a Right, NOT a Privilege
I wish the world took Asia more than just China, primarily because China is a resourceful country committed in making healthcare better for their citizens. That’s obviously not the case for the rest of the continent. Many countries are struggling to establish their economies, let alone have refined healthcare flow. If you are anywhere from the subcontinent, you would understand why delaying your gallbladder pain till the last resort seems like a better option than paying heaps of money for a small surgery.
The improvements are slow but not on a scale we would like to see. While most hospitals have a subsidiary clinic or a setup yet it still lacks the important subsided equal unbiased medical care for all the patients.
How the government can help here is by joining hands with private sectors and encouraging charitable donations towards the healthcare cause. Yet again amidst corrupted bureaucracy and unstable economies, this hope seems like an unlikely clause.
The Need for Private Health Insurance needs a serious wakeup call!
Most people in Asia do not have health insurance as a backup to help them in case of medical emergencies. Consequently, they have to bear the expenses themselves in the majority of cases.
Lately everyone in authority has been raving about the need to establish good medical insurance. We have seen our screens flash with enthusiastic speeches on how revised health programs will be the new stepping stone for the people. True we saw some great reforms in some parts of ‘economically developed’ Asia, but for most parts for a common layman fighting between whether to spend his fresh daily earnings on a clinic visit or buying his daily bread, the choice remains quite obvious.
Singapore and Japan have achieved an empowering universal health coverage system, sadly that’s not present everywhere in Asia. According to The News International, Pakistan only spends less than 1% of its GDP on healthcare. Moreover, the mortality rate in Bangladesh and Nepal just keeps increasing.
The health insurance is now more stressed upon in third-tier countries than before, yet it still needs strong implementation in private setup as well. Good Health Insurance Opportunity is an equal right of every citizen, and the government needs to ensure it reaches to everyone.
Inadequate Health Infrastructure
The challenge for expanding the medicine access and establishing substandard medical products to everyone is faced by at least one-third of the world. This may come as a far off concern, for many countries like Pakistan, where having a hospital built on international health protocols seems like a better priority yet an exhausting one.
While the rest of the world is bent on creating digital solutions such as Artificial Intelligence, mHealth, Big data etc., most people in Asia still face a shortage of polio vaccines. Testing kits, secure healthcare vicinity, cost-effective medicine are still milestones for quite many countries.
This is where a strong contribution from pharmaceutical companies will be required. Companies can create a workflow of clinical trials and proper healthcare management through reliance from big companies, for better execution of healthcare in Asia.
Investing on the Defenders of Our Health
Even though there is a serious cry for healthcare help, healthcare workers are limited or are made to limit their potential because of limited resources. In a detailed study on healthcare workers, WHO predicted that there will be approximately 18 million shortage of health workers, especially in low-income countries by 2030.
There should be a safe revenue for health workers who are dedicated and should be further encouraged in practicing apart from their respective fields for a greater cause. This can only be bridged and encouraged once the governments provide decent salaries and education for the people in the field.
Value-Based Reimbursement Awareness
As minor as it seems, this global trend is an important derivative for channeling healthcare on an industrial level. Unfortunately, this practice is very much missing in Asia. Many pharmaceutical companies are partnering with the public as well as private firms in creating outcome-based reimbursement for expensive medical treatments and services. This is a great initiative which needs recognition in Asia.
Startups can join hands in creating this digital awareness. This will also contribute majorly to healthcare research departments and novel medical experiments.
We need to make smarter choices for our future generations to come. The best way to do that is starting from good, well equipped and advanced health care systems.
We need to ensure good healthcare on a global scale which can only be achieved if we hold hands beyond borders.
