Health sector reforms in India: Challenges and opportunities

Health Sector Reforms have been the subject of increasing attention and is an often used world in the health parlance today. The last two decades have seen health sector reforms emerge as a major issue on the policy agenda. Indian health sector grew at a compound annual rate of 16% today the total value of the sector is more than $ 34 billion. There are following the key areas of opportunities within the Indian health sector like medical tourism, medical infrastructure, telemedicine, medical equipment and IT, health insurance and clinical trials etc. Notwithstanding of the sector's growth India's faces multiple challenges in health sector like shortfall in healthcare infrastructure and work force, burden of both infections and chronic degenerative diseases, low government funding and lack of efficient execution of schemes and initiatives, and financial constraints with respect to infrastructural needs. In this paper I propose that communication play an important role for improvement of health sector. First and foremost prerequisite is the awareness of the beneficiaries and participation and involvement of the people, without which no reforms in health sector will have the desired outcome.