Indian Healthcare Scenario

Dr. Parag Sancheti
Chairman, Sancheti Institute
of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation, Pune

Healthcare has emerged as one of the most progressive and largest service sectors in India. The Indian healthcare sector is expected to become a US$ 280 billion industry by 2020 with spending on health estimated to grow 14 per cent annually. Everyone is concerned about the quality of Healthcare services. We, the medical and the healthcare management fraternity, need to work together to improve the quality  and create an awareness.

The ideal ratio for hospital beds per 1000 population is 4 however, current ratio stands at 1.11 hospital beds per 1000 population. Thus India would require another 1,75 million beds by the end of 2025. Today the challenge in front of the healthcare industry is to make to access to healthcare available and inclusive as also to ensure the quality of healthcare consistent across the country, and to reduce the cost of delivery without comprising on the quality. These challenges can be overcome by improving budgetary allocation to public healthcare, and introduction of a proper regulatory mechanism to improve the quality of the service delivery. The large scale public health challenges need to be met with technology enabled solutions as well.