Gazing into the crystal ball: pre-hospital care in India

India gained independence from Britain at approximately the same time as the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS) was founded. Seventy years later, the quality of care in the NHS and in India inspire both pride and frustration.

An important difference between the UK and India is that the GDP per capita in the UK is over 40 000 USD—while in India, it is less than 2000 USD. For comparison, China's GDP is over 7500 USD. The number of physicians per 1000 people in the UK is double that in China, which in turn has twice as many physicians as India. The population of UK in 2014 was under 65 million; in China, it was 1.39 billion and India, 1.27 billion (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2016).

In both China and India, respiratory infections are said to constitute the largest disease burden while, in the UK, this consists of cardiovascular and age-related conditions. This, of course, is not the full story. The economic growth figures for China and India are currently above 6%; whereas in the UK, it is less than 2%.