Healthcare index: India ranks 154th among 195 nations, finds itself below Bangladesh and Nepal

India has performed poorly on healthcare index in the latest Lancet report titled ‘Global Burden of Disease’, lagging behind countries like Nepal, Bhutan and even Bangladesh. According to the report , which assessed and ranked the quality of healthcare and the extent to which the goals were met, the countries were analysed for a period of 25 years between 1990 and 2015.

India landed in the last quarter of the index ranking 154th among 195 countries.

The Times of India  reported that the study funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has revealed that India improved on its score in the index by 14.1 points during the period of 25 years, from 30.7 in 1990 to 44.8 in 2015. However, it underperformed in the areas of tuberculosis, diabetes, rheumatic heart diseases and chronic kidney disease.

The report stated that India’s neighbouring countries like China (74), Sri Lanka (72.8), Nepal (50.8) and Bhutan (52.7) and Bangladesh (51.7) have outperformed India in the rankings. However, India ranked above Pakistan (43).

Zee News  quoted Christopher Murray, part of the team that contributed to the report, as saying, “Despite improvements in healthcare quality and access over 25 years, inequality between the best and worst performing countries has grown.”

The diseases for which rate of death were tracked included tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and measles, treatable cancer and heart disease, and maternal or neonatal disorders.