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P. Dwivedi and M. K. Singha
13.1 Introduction
Healthcare of a human being is part of their life. A healthy person always produces
better outcomes. Like season changes, human health also changes due to various
effects like environment, age, immunity, virus attack, etc. Our lifestyle has changed
drastically since the last three-four decades. Invention in modern technology makes
our lifestyle easier and the average lifespan of human beings increases. Whenever a
person becomes sick, he or she has to visit a doctor in a hospital, or a doctor visit
to a patient home. According to their health condition if necessary they have to go
for a diagnostics test. Till now this is the common practice anywhere in the world.
But elderly people have problems visiting the hospitals due to their age. Recently
pandemic like COVID-19 makes it tougher for doctors, nurses and patients [1].
There are many reports throughout the world, especially in third world countries,
where normal patients are getting infected from COVID-19 during they hospital
visit. Even some hospitals are completely transformed into COVID-19 hospitals.
Therefore many normal activities are closed in the hospital/clinic/diagnostic centre.
There are three problems present in the modern day’s healthcare system for third
world countries like India. Most of the hospital or diagnostics centres are situated in
the cities and urban areas. But a large number of people are residing in the villages.
They do not have any access to doctors or hospitals. They are mostly untreated and
suffering from the diseases. When the patients in rural areas are in serious and critical
conditions, then only they visit the hospitals. Another problem we mentioned earlier
is that old age people. Due to their age they need more care and medical treatment
than others. But moving from home to hospitals or vice versa is a painful memory to
these people. They also need constant observations either in the hospital or at home.
If these old age patients are staying in hospital then they are observed by the nurse,
but at home real time continuous monitoring is not possible for this type of patient.
Another aspect of the recent problem is a pandemic situation like COVID-19 which
halts almost all the activities of doctors and patients in the hospital [2].
Present days natural environments and ecosystems are also declining due to rapid
industrialization and it creates pollution. These phenomena also affect the health
conditions of human beings in many countries in the world [3, 4]. For a healthy
body, a good and clean environment is required. It is found that one quarter of health
problems is due to the environment [5]. Rising healthcare problems generate solid
waste which also damages the ecosystem and environment. Another problem with
modern healthcare systems is use of biological, pharmaceutical products, toxic byproducts from medication, infectious waste, radioactive materials and solid water
waste. By-products of these are thrown out to the environment and create more
damage to our health [6]. Healthcare systems generate solid waste, waste water,
greenhouse gas emissions, toxic chemicals, resource consumption-water and energy.
These can affect the environmental conditions such as pollution level, temperature,
drinking water, humidity, etc. [7]. In comparison to consulting patients more waste
is generated by the admitted patients. Waste generation by patients varies from
country to country. High income countries produce more waste than low and middle
P. Dwivedi and M. K. Singha
13.1 Introduction
Healthcare of a human being is part of their life. A healthy person always produces
better outcomes. Like season changes, human health also changes due to various
effects like environment, age, immunity, virus attack, etc. Our lifestyle has changed
drastically since the last three-four decades. Invention in modern technology makes
our lifestyle easier and the average lifespan of human beings increases. Whenever a
person becomes sick, he or she has to visit a doctor in a hospital, or a doctor visit
to a patient home. According to their health condition if necessary they have to go
for a diagnostics test. Till now this is the common practice anywhere in the world.
But elderly people have problems visiting the hospitals due to their age. Recently
pandemic like COVID-19 makes it tougher for doctors, nurses and patients [1].
There are many reports throughout the world, especially in third world countries,
where normal patients are getting infected from COVID-19 during they hospital
visit. Even some hospitals are completely transformed into COVID-19 hospitals.
Therefore many normal activities are closed in the hospital/clinic/diagnostic centre.
There are three problems present in the modern day’s healthcare system for third
world countries like India. Most of the hospital or diagnostics centres are situated in
the cities and urban areas. But a large number of people are residing in the villages.
They do not have any access to doctors or hospitals. They are mostly untreated and
suffering from the diseases. When the patients in rural areas are in serious and critical
conditions, then only they visit the hospitals. Another problem we mentioned earlier
is that old age people. Due to their age they need more care and medical treatment
than others. But moving from home to hospitals or vice versa is a painful memory to
these people. They also need constant observations either in the hospital or at home.
If these old age patients are staying in hospital then they are observed by the nurse,
but at home real time continuous monitoring is not possible for this type of patient.
Another aspect of the recent problem is a pandemic situation like COVID-19 which
halts almost all the activities of doctors and patients in the hospital [2].
Present days natural environments and ecosystems are also declining due to rapid
industrialization and it creates pollution. These phenomena also affect the health
conditions of human beings in many countries in the world [3, 4]. For a healthy
body, a good and clean environment is required. It is found that one quarter of health
problems is due to the environment [5]. Rising healthcare problems generate solid
waste which also damages the ecosystem and environment. Another problem with
modern healthcare systems is use of biological, pharmaceutical products, toxic byproducts from medication, infectious waste, radioactive materials and solid water
waste. By-products of these are thrown out to the environment and create more
damage to our health [6]. Healthcare systems generate solid waste, waste water,
greenhouse gas emissions, toxic chemicals, resource consumption-water and energy.
These can affect the environmental conditions such as pollution level, temperature,
drinking water, humidity, etc. [7]. In comparison to consulting patients more waste
is generated by the admitted patients. Waste generation by patients varies from
country to country. High income countries produce more waste than low and middle