Highest Percentage of People Preferring Private Clinics over Govt Hospitals Belongs to UP: Survey

In what may be a clear indictment of the condition of government-run hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, a survey has found that of the people who chose private healthcare facilities over government ones, the highest percentage is from the north Indian state.

And, the biggest reason given by the respondents for staying away from government hospitals is unsatisfactory quality of service and unavailability of doctors.

The survey is part of a report recently released by the National Sample Survey (NSS), titled 'Health in India' for the period between July 2017 to June 2018.

The survey showed that of every 100 people who prefer to not avail treatment at government hospitals, the highest, 17, are from UP. At the second spot comes Maharashtra with close to 14 people dissatisfied with government hospitals -- also for the same reasons.

The various treatment available at hospitals were divided into categories like surgeries, pre-op and post-op treatments.

Uttar Pradesh was also the state which had among the least proportion of people opting for government hospitals for surgeries. Only 17.6% patients in the state went to government hospitals for surgeries, compared to other states like Arunachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir where 91.6 and 74.5% people, respectively, got admitted into government hospitals for operations.

Well over half the people across all northeast states -- Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Sikkim -- preferred government hospitals over private ones for various sorts of treatment, including surgeries.

Even when it came to getting basic tests done, like X-Ray, ECG, EEG, and other scans, only 23.4% people in UP went to government clinics, while 76.1% residents of Himachal Pradesh preferred government facilities over private ones.

Uttar Pradesh also had among the fewest proportion of people visiting government hospitals for pre-op and post-op treatment. Over 5.55 lakh people across 36 states and Union Territories were surveyed for the 75th ‘Health In India’ report.