| The author asserts that the Indian federal government has failed to implement feasible health programmes and has used the medical profession as its scapegoat. The report of the Health Survey and Development Committee (the Bhore report), published in 1946, documented the low level of health care and outlined phased and time-bound strategy and tactics for improvement; the government adopted the principles and initiated 5-year plans to construct health centres, new district and subdivisional hospitals, new medical schools, paramedical training centres, and pharmaceutical industries. However, the rural population still did not receive adequate care, and a reappraisal by the Mudalier committee in 1961 failed to provide solutions to this problem. The author believes that the failure was in implementation not in planning. Health centres were poorly equipped and were understaffed. He says that the Indian Medical Association (IMA) met with the government and repeatedly offered plans to approach health problems such as those in rural health care and family planning but that the government ignored the IMA's suggestions, instituted more plans without scientific investigation, and blamed the failures of previous programmes on the medical profession. |