Women may be missing out on outpatient care access in north India

Missing out on healthcare services may not always result in death, so death rates may not capture the extent of gender disparity

Women account for only a little over one-third of appointments at a major hospital in New Delhi, highlighting extensive gender discrimination in access to healthcare services, researchers say.
 
Looking at outpatient visits to a large hospital in the capital, the analysis found that about half of the women who ought to have received care were “missing.” Women under age 30 and over age 60 were the most conspicuously absent, relative to their actual population numbers, the study team reports in BMJ Open.
 
Gender disparity in healthcare is usually studied by comparing mortality rates of females versus males, said