Just 37% of patients at AIIMS are women

 Gender Bias Less Steep Among Middle-Aged

In a first-of-its-kind study, AIIMS has confirmed what has been known for ages — women face discrimination in access to healthcare. Out of the 23.8 lakh patients who visited the institute in 2016, only 37% were women, reveals the study published recently in British Medical Journal. The study didn’t include patients visiting the obstetrics and gynaecology departments dealing only with women’s issues. Dr Ambuj Roy, the lead author of the study, told TOI that younger and older women were the most neglected and discriminated against. In the middle-age group — 31-44 and 45-59 years — the gender bias was less at 1.5 male patients per female patient and 1.4 male patients per female patient, respectively, said Dr Roy. In the young group — 0-18 and 19-30 years, the bias rose to 1.9 and 2.02, respectively, he added. As per the study, 1.7 male patients per female patient visited AIIMS in the age group of 60 years and above. More than 90% of the patients at AIIMS travel from four states — Delhi, where the hospital is located; Haryana, an adjoining state; Uttar Pradesh, a state slightly away; and Bihar, the farthest from Delhi. The hospital data also shows that increase in distance from the hospital was inversely proportional to the number of women visiting the hospital as compared to men. In 2016, 84,926 women from Bihar visited AIIMS compared to over two lakh men. Compared to this, in Delhi, the gender bias was less with 4.8 lakh female visitors compared to 6.6 lakh males. According to Dr Roy, a professor of cardiology at AIIMS, the findings suggest that local healthcare infrastructure needs to be strengthened to benefit the younger and older women. AIIMS also studied the gender bias among various departments. The doctors found that more men visited the hospital for heart ailment — 1.9 male patients per female patient. This was followed by a skewed sex ratio among patients visiting ENT (1.9 male patients per female patient), emergency medicine (1.8), paediatrics (1.8), eye (1.8), surgery (1.4), skin (1.4), orthopaedics (1.3) and medicine (1.3). Sensitisation on giving women equal priority as well as opportunity to seek treatment is important to end the bias, said doctors. In 2011, another study conducted by AIIMS doctors had shown a similar gender bias among children with congenital heart disease. It revealed that the likelihood of a male child undergoing corrective surgery was 3.5 times higher than that of a female child. Concluding its report, the current study stated, “There is extensive gender discrimination in healthcare access, with the situation worsening for younger and older female patients and those at increasing distances from the referral hospital. This calls for systemic societal and governmental action to correct this gender discrimination.

Source: Times of India, 9/08/2019