Historical growth and transformation of healthcare services in Kolkata

Historical analysis of the development of healthcare in India is a fascinating subject but the literature is limited, as related to Eastern India.So, at the outset, kudos to Amrita Bagchi for writing this book, which is based on her doctoral thesis.In the Introduction, Bagchi specifies that "the aim of this work is not merely to trace the increase of private healthcare sector in Kolkata but to explore the changing pattern of the entire healthcare sector, which has transformed itself into a profitmaking industry in the last two decades" [p 2].And for this, the author poses certain key questions that she will try to answer through this book: What was the state of the public healthcare system in Kolkata after 1947?Was it inadequate to meet the need?