Healthcare Situation in India
Two critical issues with healthcare delivery 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:
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
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