Indian healthcare industry is now looking at the creation of a platform on the lines of the NASSCOM to ensure that sustainable strategies are in place to provide affordability and also to drive growth.

The sector needs to make sure that treatment protocols are affordable. The industry needs to utilise the help of multi- stakeholders to create a pathway for a dialogue. While developed countries have already built-in their sustainability in the healthcare model, India needs to work, stated a panel of experts at the one-day All India Management Association (AIMA) conference on  ‘Sustainable strategies for a healthy India: Imperatives for consolidating the healthcare management ecosystem’.

In his keynote address Vishal Bali, Group CEO, Fortis Healthcare said that the partnership of multi stakeholders would help to create a sustainable dialogue. This would be just like the NASSCOM which succeeded in the growth and development of the information technology industry.

Healthcare leaders find that responding to cost structures is difficult because of rising cost and rupee depreciation. India is now dealing with an increasing population and the criticality of this healthcare system is to treat an ageing population. We are faced with issues of demographics and limitations in purchasing power. Therefore, it is time for a dialogue with the healthcare industry to congregate for a new learning, innovative thinking and ensure a paradigm shift, said the Fortis Healthcare chief.

“While there is a quest for change globally, Indian healthcare has a long way to go. Even in the Asian region of Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia, the governments are pulling out of healthcare for paucity of resources. Private healthcare providers have chipped to maximize the opportunities to offer affordable and quality care. The reality is that the 20th century healthcare is driven by using 19th century systems. There are rapid changes in this space and to keep pace with the transformations is difficult only because of the sector’s hierarchal nature and funding challenges,” Bali stated.

In his inaugural address, Dr Devi Shetty, chairman Narayana Hrudayalaya said that Indian healthcare needs to associate medical students just as they join in for MBBS course to ensure sustenance of health care delivery. These students would be exposed to a  professional foundation to be trained as doctors capable of working anywhere in the country. The 46,000 medical students graduating out of medical colleges need to part of the healthcare industry and their contribution would help create more jobs in the space.

There is also the need to adopt technology into healthcare to drive speed to diagnostics and treatment. The country is not only facing shortage of hospitals but a paucity of doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff. There are about 1.5 lakh primary healthcare centres with no doctors. India is facing a shortage of two million nurses. In the next five years, nursing profession will be extinct for want of growth in this career. Further, there are also no efforts to certify the 29,000 Ayush doctors who graduate annually to prescribe or administer drugs and basic treatment at PHCs. These are critical to healthcare growth said Dr Shetty.

The event also has sessions on talent and technology, and mechanisms for collaboration among stakeholders in healthcare management ecosystem.