Union government’s e-health initiative in line with ‘Digital India’ campaign is giving a fillip to healthcare growth, according to Dr Usha Manjunath, Officiating Director, and Dean-Academics, IIHMR, Bengaluru.

Health IT and disruptive technologies are increasingly becoming important for India, making the healthcare industry smarter. This will now see government hospitals to streamline with operations using IT. It will also offer job avenues in IT related domains and healthcare, she said.

Paucity of good infrastructure, maintenance and latest technology are impacting the government hospitals leading to poor service quality. There is no upgrade of  clinical competencies among the government doctors. Over and above, the government system is laden with apathy, lack of enthusiasm, no incentives for performers and are short of accountability. All these lead to a decline in interest to excel in healthcare practice, Dr Manjunath told Pharmabiz. .
 
Despite the presence of qualified doctors in government hospitals, access to multidisciplinary teams are limited. Many government hospitals portray poor sanitary conditions too which has also resulted in abysmal service quality. This is where e-health initiatives could ease our infrastructural problems. Remote diagnosis can enable early detection of disease/disorder and allow faster access to treatment with limited hospitalisation.

The market value of Health Information Technology (HIT) is pegged at US$ 1 billion and is expected to grow one & half times by 2020. It is not only that private healthcare is investing in technologies but the government is also keen to capitalise on the tech boom, said Dr. Manjunath.

Quoting a government report, she said that Public health spending is slated to increase from the current 1.1 per cent of GDP to 2.5 by 2025. “This is an indication that increased healthcare coverage will be possible. The sector has registered a growth of 25% in the recent years. The rising income levels, ageing population, increasing insurance coverage and the imbalance in demand-supply present a big opportunity for healthcare providers to increase their bed capacity and for further investments in this sector,” she noted.

 Government has improved basic healthcare services with Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres in rural areas though much has to be done in this sector. Large scale investments are not feasible for public health system and it is not profitable for private healthcare to invest in rural areas. Rural India is an aggregate of small villages, many of them having less than 1,000 households, so population is spread across and the paucity of transportation is a deterrent for hospitals to be established in such areas. Also, healthcare related supplies such as access to drugs, equipment installation and service, consumables etc are not easily available in rural areas. This is where the Union government’s e-health initiative can bolster healthcare growth, pointed out Dr Manjunath.