This paper reviews the Healthcare Sector of India. We will study the qualities
of good healthcare system drawback of the industry, impact of industry on
economy and other parameters to define this sector in known formats. We also
study the current Indian Healthcare trends and its future growth in the coming
years will be summarize in this paper.
Introduction
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India experienced a national lockdown starting at
midnight on March 25, 2020, with conditional relief by phases and zones
beginning on April 20. In a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in
India, we assessed the lockdown's effects on medical services, physical and
mental health, and social well-being. The Healthcare sector consists of all
companies engaged in the provision and coordination of medical and related goods
and services such as providing medical services, produce medical supplies or
medications, offer medical insurance, or in some other way help patients receive
healthcare facility.[1]
What is Healthcare?
The diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury and other
physical mental disabilities in humans is known as health care. Partitioners in
the fields of medicine, chiropractic, density, nursing, pharmacy, allied health,
and other care professionals provide healthcare. It describes the work done in
the fields of public, health, primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care.
Classification of Healthcare Industry
To satisfy the health needs of individuals and populations, the contemporary
health care sector is organized into numerous sub-sectors, and relies on
interdisciplinary terms of qualified professionals and paraprofessionals. One of
the largest and fastest growing industries in the world, the health care sector
contributes significantly to a nations economy. Interdisciplinary teams made up
of group of professionals and paraprofessionals are essential to the delivery of
modern healthcare.
Those who routinely offer individualism and population-based
preventive, curative, and rehabilitative care services fall under this category.
They include professionals in medicine, dentistry, nursing, and allied health,
as well as many others like public health partitioners, community health
workers, and assistive personnel. The health care sector is often separated into
different sectors for management and financial reasons. The International
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) of the United Nations provides the
following basic structure for categorizing the sector.
- Hospital Activities
- Medical and Dental Practice activities
- Other human health activities
The third category includes tasks performed by or under the direction of midwives, pathology clinics, scientific or diagnostic labs, nurses, physiotherapist, residential healthcare facilities, or both allied health professionals, such as medical massage, yoga therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, optometry, music therapy, chiropractic etc.
The industry is further classified into three primary groups according to the Global industry Classification Standard and the industry Classification Benchmark
- Health care equipment and services
Hospitals, home health care providers, nursing homes, and other institutions are example of business and other entices that offer medical supplies, equipment, and services.
- Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and related life sciences
Company that manufactures biotechnology, medicines, and various scientific services make up the secondary industry group.
- Healthcare providers and professionals
An organization (like a hospital or clinic) or person (like a doctor, nurse,
allied health, professionals, or community health worker) that offers
preventive, promotional, rehabilitative, curative, or palliative care services
to individuals, families, or communities is referred to as a health care
provider. [2]
Qualities of Good healthcare and wellness industry in India:
- Modern hospitals with outstanding infrastructure.
- Largest pool of highly competent and certified physicians and compassionate nurse and paramedics.
- Modern, cutting-edge medical technology.
- Treatment that is reasonably priced and cost only 25% to 30% of what it would be in other countries.
- Absence of waiting period in the treatment of patients.
- International patients won't experience any language barriers because the doctors, nurses, paramedical, staff's fluency in English and other languages.
- Ultramodern facilities for pharmaceutical manufacture and packaging.
- Numerous private hospitals that have joint commission international and the National Accreditation Board for hospitals & healthcare provides (NABH) accreditation (JCI).
- Indian medicine has a more than 5000-year history.
- In India, many people use the abbreviation "AYUSH", which stands for Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy.
- Yoga and Ayurveda, which originated in India, are now recognized as effective way to cure both wellness of mind and the body.
Drawbacks of Indian Healthcare System in India:
- Expenditure on health sector is 4.2% of total expenditure from budgets of all states. This is low as compared to other developed countries of the world such as USA, Italy etc.
- Poor Management of Government aided hospitals which is affordable by the poor people.
- Lack of Modern Techniques and facilities as compared to other countries.
- Unequal distribution of health care services.
- The inability of government hospitals leads to the privatization of health sector.
- Shortage of doctors as compared to growing population which leads to unmanageable patient load.
- High out-of-pocket expenditure for poor people as government hospitals facilities are understaffed, poorly equipped, and located mainly in urban areas due to which they have to opt for private hospitals.
- Poor sanitation facilities available to citizens at large.
Impact of Health Industry on Economy
For both National Economies and people all around the world, the health care
sector is of utmost importance. One of the industries with the quickest global
growth is the health care industry with high contribution not only in terms of
revenue, but also employment. There is a correlation between income levels and
health acre spending across various nations, with health acre accounting for
more than 10% of the GDP of the majority of developed countries. For instance,
compared to more industrialized nations like the US or France, some of the major
developing economies, including Brazil, India, China, and Russia, spent less on
health care.[5]
Growth of Healthcare Industry in India
For investors, India has always been the "Apple of the Eye" because of its
enormous population, varied topography, mixed cultures, and limitless potential.
When came to allocating resources, healthcare in India was always given
second-class treatment. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, India realized the
disadvantage it had caused by ignoring healthcare, as the virus has revealed how
unprepared the nation was to combat and defeat emerging infections.
By 2022, the
center also intends to raise healthcare spending to 3% of GDP, the healthcare
sector is seeing an expansion by existing hospitals in terms of new services
through technology platforms, investment in next-generation tools for diagnosis,
partnership with insurance companies, and geographic expansion. The industry is
also drawing new capital from domestic and foreign investors to support both greenfield projects and the expansion of huge hospitals chains that already
exists.
Major factors which would change the scenario of Indian Health care industry
in the coming future are:
- By 2022, the healthcare market is anticipated to be worth $372 billion. This growth is propelled by increased government attention on providing universal healthcare, rising income levels, an ageing population, increased healthcare knowledge, rising health insurance penetration, and an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases are the main drivers of this growth. Along with these factors, India's distinctive value proposition-low cost, accessibility to cutting-edge technology, and a talented workforce force- also contributes to the growth of the country.
- India now has a $41 billion pharmaceutical business, which is anticipated to grow to $130 billion by 2030. In India, pharmaceutical companies account for 85% of the market, compared to only 15% for global pharmaceuticals.
- By 2025, it is anticipated that India's biotechnology market would have grown by an average of 30% annually and will total $100 billion.
- With Indian products accounting for over 40% (by volume) of the US medicine market, India already contributes over 20% of the global generics market's value.
- Given that hospitals make up 80% of the country healthcare business, there is significant demand for investment on both the domestic and international levels. The hospitals sector is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 16-17% from $61.8 billion in 2017 to $132 billion by 2023.
- By 2022, the diagnostics market is projected to increase at a CAGR of 20.4% and reach $32 billion.
- There is a 370% increase in health expenditure from 2000 to 2014.
- An investment of rupees 17,691.08 crore is made in medical education in 157 new approved medical colleges since 2014.
Conclusion
The need of the hour is to make people awake about the basic health facilities
that is available to them free of cost from government side. There is also need
to make people conscious about the medical awareness such as day to day habit,
regular checkup of body once a year, regular jogging and various other
activities which help a man to be fit and fine.
The government should organize
various conferences, seminars, workshop on health-related issue to make people
sensitive about the health issues. The Government must increase the number of
hospitals, no of doctors per population, infrastructure, technology, and various
other sectors which are related to health sector for its better functioning. So
Government working upon this issue will surely be able to get better healthcare
facilities in near future.
End-Notes:
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/healthinsurance.asp
- https://www.technofunc.com/index.php/domain-knowledge/healthcare-industry/item/overview-of-healthcare-industry(last visited on 18th September)
- https://www.ahcindia.in/advantage-healthcare-about-event.php(last visited on 18th September)
- https://byjus.com/question-answer/discuss-the-main-drawbacks-of-our-healthcare-system/t
- https://www.technofunc.com/index.php/domain-knowledge/healthcare-industry/item/overview-of-healthcare-industry(last visited on 18th September)
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/the-boom-in-indias-healthcare-firms-isnt-showing-signs-of-slowing/articleshow/88966321.cms(last visited on 18th September)
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