As I sat with my gran in the waiting room of a small hospital in a rural town in South India, waiting to see her oncologist amidst a sea of patients, I could not help but imagine the consequences if the dice roll of her life had been different and she had accessed another healthcare system. General practice does not exist in India. Patients have to pay for every aspect of health, from the initial consultation to the cannula they need if admitted to hospital. As a result, patients tend to ignore symptoms until they become severe, at which point it can be too late or so complicated that they end up seeing the wrong specialist.
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