Healthcare Situation in India

Two critical issues with healthcare delivery in India

Accessibility

  • Large population base with insufficient physicians
    • USA 1:350 (Physician:Patient ratio)
    • China 1:1000
    • But India is 1:1500 (1 physician for every 1500 patients)
  • With disparate population distribution, healthcare delivery necessitates large distances for patients to travel, long wait times, and inconvenient hours of operation.

Affordability

    • Population poverty (68% of India is rural, and half of this is below poverty line)
    • Health Insurance Penetration (75% of Indian population pays from their own pockets)
    • Government Healthcare Solutions face several operational hurdles with large population base, and hence private medical sector remains primaryhealthcare provider (70% in urban, and 63% in rural)

The facilities & care in Rural India are challenging:

  • Rural India has 5x less Doctors than Urban areas
    • Overall India 1:1500 (Physician:Patient ratio)
    • Urban India 1:500
    • But Rural India is 1:2500 (1 physician for every 2500 patients)
  • Retaining doctors (especially Specialists) challenging in rural areas (50% posts PHC/CHC vacant for obstetricians, paediatricians, gynaecologists)
  • Rural beds 15 times lower than urban
  • 31% of rural population travels 30+ km for medical care
  • 90% of secondary/tertiary care facilities are in cities and towns

Urban India

  • Telemedicine can be deployed to increase convenience & coverage
  • Telemedicine allows increased access to Specialists

Rural India

Telemedicine can significantly improve healthcare in Rural India in a cost-effective solution

  • Telemedicine can solve the “Accessibility” problem, by deployment of cost-effective portable/mobile clinics to widespread ruraldemographics
  • Optimize Government healthcare spending: Countries like the US spend 18% of their GDP in healthcare. While India spendsonly 4.2% of its GDP in healthcare, even this spend can be optimized in terms of reach and quality, with deployment ofTelemedicine Solutions
  • Telemedicine partially solves the critical problem of relocation of Physicians, especially Specialists, to rural healthcare centers