Study Mission to India: Healthcare highlights
Today we had a very interesting presentation on healthcare in India. Here are some of the highlights:
- Because of the explosive growth, there is a huge opportunity in India's healthcare sector.
- Healthcare equaled 5.2 percent of GDP in 2004 and is expected to be 5.5 percent in 2009. The sector employs around 9 million people.
- Standard of Care is the biggest opportunity for improvement, as is the ability to serve more people.
- Demand is expected to outstrip the supply over the next decade. Almost 80,000 additional hospital beds will be required to adequately meet the need.
- There is a shift from traditional diseases such as typhoid and cholera to problems such as heart attack, arthritis, and diabetes. Diabetes is rampant and obesity is increasing, which predisposes patients to cardiac disease.
- 85 percent of the population pay for healthcare out of pocket. There is no healthcare insurance.
- There is very little focus on preventive health, resulting in non-operable medical conditions.
- Wellness programs are needed – yoga, exercise and diet control are huge areas!
- India’s total expenditure on health, public and private, does not compare favorably with South East Asian countries.
- There is a huge need for qualified nurses because many skilled nurses go to Western countries because the pay is so much better.
Key drivers include:
- Access through health insurance
- Support capability building in R&D in healthcare
- Significant improvement in healthcare infrastructure
- Adoption of a broader view of healthcare costs
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Comments
Anne, thanks so much for your posts from India. They have been great. I have a couple of questions about this post that I wanted to ask.
First, what you're writing about here is the state of health care in India for its citizens. Did you discuss the rising popularity of "medical tourism," i.e., people from developed nations go to India and other developing nations to receive surgeries and other medical procedures at dramatically reduced prices? If so, what effect does medical tourism have on health care cost, quality and delivery to the Indian people?
Also, did you discuss the impact of Indian health care innovators such as NH, BMVSS and Aravind, on the overall system? How are their efforts encouraging additional innovations in health care delivery?
Thanks again for your posts! I look forward to reading more in the coming days.
Posted by: Jeff De Cagna | February 26, 2008 7:33 AM
Jeff, unfortunately, we didn't discuss the issues that you raise. We covered a lot more than healthcare yesterday--we also covered education and lessons learned from opening an office. However, in the spirit of trying to limit the copy I just focused on the healthcare piece. But you really can't get into a lot of depth in a half hour presentation. These presentations are more or less giving an overview/highlights.
Thank you so much for reading!
Posted by: Anne Blouin | February 27, 2008 7:33 AM