Covid-19 & Indian Healthcare Sector

The present world is interconnected in so many ways, so much so that a recession at some part of the world might affect even you and me sitting at home or gadgets made in the US would be delivered to another part of the world within days. And the recent spread of Novel Coronavirus has shown us that this interconnectedness is not just in technology or policies, etc., but even in healthcare sector as well.

After travelling across 114 countries in three months, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced this outbreak of Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Just like the pandemic SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) of 2003, the novel coronavirus also spreads through droplets from sneezes and by direct or indirect contact with an infected person. With a total of 17,594,541 confirmed cases spread across 227 countries and territories, Covid-19 is one of the worst hit pandemics ever. Neither developed nor developing countries did not have a base framework to deal with such a pandemic in such short notice, in fact the it is straining the health systems worldwide.

Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal

Covid-19 & India

According to the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker which aims to track and compare government responses to the coronavirus outbreak worldwide, rigorously and consistently, India obtained a score of 100 in the month of April which got reduced to 77.78 by July. By suspending all domestic and international travel by 20^th of March and announcing a total lockdown from 24^th of March, the Indian government was quick to activate its health management system and other necessary policies to tackle down the situation. But ever since there has been an ease on the traveling restrictions and lockdown, the number of positive cases and the number of deaths has been hiking up, leading India to be the 3^rd worst country hit by the pandemic. While at present all the energies of our nation are focused on controlling the transmission and shortening grimness and mortality because of the pandemic, it is also important to look into the future to see where the health sector of our nation will stand.

The Future of Indian Healthcare Sector

1.      With such a confronting a phenomenal danger, there is a chance to rise with more grounded wellbeing frameworks, and more importantly, an improved worldwide coordinated effort to confront the following wellbeing threat. This is an important factor in strengthening pandemic preparedness for the future.

^2.        With 21.9% of the Indian population below the poverty line, the standard of living including proper hygiene and healthcare facilities for a large proportion of our population was not properly taken care of. But with the increase of community awareness in the present scenario about personal hygiene and taking precautionary measures for the same will help to reduce communicable diseases in the future.

Even though in the short term there will be, a tremendous increase in burden on primary care facilities, in the long run, high levels of awareness and compliance to even small routines like cleaning of hands can have far-reaching implications for transmission of various other infections as well. 

3.      With the pandemic as a reminder regarding the importance of investing in the healthcare sector in our country and recognising the inadequacy of our health sector to serve such a large population, percentage of public health expenditure is expected to increase up to 2.5% of GDP by 2025.

4.      India is emerging as one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines all over the world with a 20 per cent share in global supply by volume, but this present situation calls for internalising all sorts of supplies like ventilators, PPE, masks, diagnostic kits, etc. Eventually the pandemic will go but the equipment’s will stay and by making better use of these, there is an opportunity to improve our healthcare delivery.

5.      The private sector hospitals are expected to be on loss at least for the near future as a consequence of the pandemic. The private sector has joined the government’s efforts to contain the spread of covid-19 through support in testing facilities, preparing isolation beds and deploying equipment and staff in identified nodal hospitals and at the same time is experiencing a 90% drop in its revenue with sharp drops in out-patient numbers, elective surgeries and international patients.

6.      Medical tourism will face a downward sloping trend in the near future because of the travelling restrictions and the present situation caused by covid-19 and is expected to get hit by a fiscal damage of 2.5 billion dollars.

7.      As the entire medical sector is focused on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Covid-19, proper care and treatment for other diseases are getting delayed which can lead to long term burden on healthcare which would ultimately increase the death rate due to non-communicable diseases. Patients of chronic disease being careful about going out, or confronting challenges in travelling because of lock down might cause them to miss the treatment winding up with long haul spin-off. These can in the long run, increment the chance of complicating and worsening the sickness raising the general weight of diseases of the nation to a great extent.

8.      With a rapid technological growth, a supporting patient engagement system outside of a customary traditional setting is imperative towards building a compatibility among patients and healthcare providers.

In conclusion, the healthcare systems will be facing both physical and mental exhaustion of the healthcare workforce along with an exhausted hospital infrastructure. If the pandemic continues to prevail for a much longer period than anticipated, then there would be a backlog or inability for the patients to avail medical services, hence delaying critical services and care. In addition to that, mental health is projected to become a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally along with rise in non-communicable, chronic diseases. Most importantly, financing of the healthcare sector should be considered as an investment rather than as a cost, leading to the betterment of citizens of a nation.