Healthcare Delivery Systems in Rural Areas

Abstract

Health care is a fundamental right of every human being. About half of the world’s population (An estimated 3.4 billion of the world’s 7.6 billion in 2018) lived in rural areas. Individuals in rural areas often have poor access to healthcare because of poor accessibility and availability of standard healthcare systems and socio-cultural factors affecting their perception of health compared to the urban population. Though there is a projected decrease in the absolute percentage of the world’s population dwelling in rural areas by 2050, there is also a projected increase projected increase needing of prioritizing rural health. This chapter shall discusses the critical factors that disadvantage the rural population. It also considers the methods used to work out rural healthcare delivery strategies to decrease this disparity in rural areas’ health care facilities.

Lessons learned from qualitative fieldwork in a multilingual setting

“…India has one of the world’s largest and most diverse economies, but due to its massive population, it is among the poorest nations, with approximately half of the population deriving their livelihood from agriculture (Choithani et al, 2021 ). The healthcare delivery system in India comprises both government and private sectors, with government facilities primarily limited to a few secondary and tertiary care hospitals in major cities and primary healthcare clinics in rural areas (Jacob, 2021 ). The majority of secondary, tertiary, and higher care facilities are operated by the private sectors, with a concentration in major cities (State of Healthcare Sector in India, 2022 ).…”