Severe shortage of infrastructure and manpower is hampering the growth of the Indian healthcare sector, said Dr Ajay Bakshi, MD & CEO, Manipal Hospitals. Adding to the woes of patient care is the insufficient medical technology installations and inadequate utilization of information technology compared to the western world. Although India is known for its home-grown innovations in IT, software that are low cost and viable alternatives to bring in the required efficiency at hospitals, investments are found to be wanting, Dr Bakshi told Pharmabiz.

A visible trend across the hospitals is the sharp rise in chronic diseases across the Indian population. The incidence of hypertension, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disorders, renal failures and stroke has led to a constant need for medical monitoring and medication. “This is a disturbing trend as patients and their families are unprepared to handle a health crisis primarily because of poor awareness. Hospitals like Manipal are working to ensure patients move in for preventive healthcare or have quick access to medical assistance at an early stage of disease manifestation,” he said.

The challenge for Indian healthcare is to equip doctors to handle serious and delayed admissions of advanced stages of diseases. Another issue is that patients have a business mindset and are seen to negotiate with doctors to treat the disease till symptoms are controlled. The only way to avoid this is to ensure that medical professionals and healthcare providers educate patients on early detection as the best mode to save costs, said Dr Bakshi.

“Healthcare sector has scope for expansion because there is no dearth of funds from either private equity or venture capitalists. At the macro level, there are a couple of concerns like high real estate cost, which impacts the economics of any hospital and healthcare in the country is expensive primarily because of this. However, from a global perspective, healthcare in India is the most affordable and giving a fillip to medical tourism opportunities. The cost of surgical interventions has not gone up considerably. For instance, in the 90s, a bypass surgery was Rs.1.5 lakh and two decades later it is still Rs.2 lakh. This is a clear indication that hospital economics do not support the rising cost of real estate,” he said.

The complex hospital pricing makes it difficult for healthcare providers scale-up led to the option of asset light model to drive at faster return on investment. But Dr. Bakshi expressed that asset light models were merely financially engineered concepts in capital allocation and not a solution to beat escalating real estate costs. “There is no fundamental difference in such a investment because healthcare providers will still need to bear the costs which would eventually impact its EBITA margins,” he noted.