India's healthcare infra ails, says report

India's healthcare sector continues to face increasingly complex challenges. A large population and low overall healthcare and public spending have led to skewed access to healthcare across the country, says a latest report by Bain & Company.

The government infrastructure, in particular, is woefully inadequate, it notes. "India's per capita public and private healthcare spending in 2016 was $87, compared with $10,203 in the US and $471 in China," it says.

While China spends 5.4 times more, US spends 117.3 times more than India in terms of healthcare. This results in more Out-Of-Pocket expenditure (OOP) for Indians to take care of their health care needs. "Indians use their personal savings to pay for more than 62% of their OOP healthcare expenses. This figure compares with 13.4% in the US and 54% in China," states the report.

Also, India has fewer hospital beds and nurses than either China or the US. "In 2016, India could provide only 0.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people, whereas the US and China offered 2.8 beds and 3.5 beds, respectively," said the report.

In a glaring disparity between public and private sector, the private sector accounts for 63% of hospital beds in India, and government reports indicate that the country is 81% short of specialists at rural community health centres.

In this scenario, the report calls for better management of private health care providers.

"Providers incur significant costs on accreditation, quality upgradation and maintenance, recruiting and building clinical teams. That cost is often designated to standard consumables and diagnostic tests, which angers their patients," says the report. "Providers could instead take a different approach by focussing on delivering differential value to patients through an ability to handle greater complexity and superior outcomes, then charging differentially for those procedures and specialties."