While Kerala’s health system is on the right track to achieving universal health care and coverage, the State will have to devise renewed strategies and focus on preventive and primary care, so as to meet the healthcare requirements of a rapidly aging population and the high cost of care of chronic illnesses.
Public health in the State continues to focus on clinical care and has gone away from preventive care, public health measures and health promotion activities, all of which are crucial for improving primary care. The focus on setting up high-end hospital infrastructure should not be at the cost of primary and preventive care, which alone can help the State bring down its high out of pocket expenditure on health, health experts pointed out at a seminar on Public Health sector here on Friday, organised as part of Keraleeyam.
Speaking on the occasion, the president of Public Health Foundation of India, K. Srinath Reddy, said that Kerala had developed an equitable and empathetic public health system which looked beyond delivery of healthcare services and that the continuum of clinical medicine and public health had been achieved remarkably well by the State. He said that the State should invest heavily in multidisciplinary research to meet the challenges of growing non communicable diseases and health issues linked to environment and climate change.
