Introduction
SATHI is at the forefront of activities around ensuring social accountability of private healthcare, advocating for the need to strengthen public health services, roll back privatisation, and instate comprehensive social accountability of the private medical sector. India’s private medical sector is one of the largest in the world, and remains loosely regulated, resulting in serious problems including frequent financial exploitation of patients, and sub-standard and irrational care in private hospitals and nursing homes. Consequently, medical expenditure annually pushes an estimated 4 crore Indians into poverty.
As a frontrunner for advocating social accountability of private healthcare, SATHI hosts the Global Thematic Hub on Accountability of Private Healthcare Sector associated with COPASAH, and works on this front in India, in collaboration with networks like Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (People’s Health Movement – India).
SATHI initiated a National patients’ rights campaign in India, which has found enthusiastic and widespread response from CSOs, and citizens deeply affected and concerned about issues related to commercialized and unregulated private healthcare providers