Dr Alok Roy, Chair, FICCI Health Services Committee & Chairman, Medica Group of Hospitals
COVID-19 has been undoubtedly the most devastating public health emergency in the last century. This pandemic has taught us that we need to relook at the way we design our hospitals. The processes in the hospital like hand washing, sanitisation, air circulation system and other safety protocols should be refocused.
The vision for 2030 will be more holistic, the hospitals must be sectoral and should be vertically split into infectious prone area and non- infectious zone.
We must adopt to the new normal. The new normal is that we have to rely and invest on technology, teleconsultations and digital way of operations. Technology could be harnessed to ensure good quality of outcomes in all the programs announced by the Government.
We will have to focus on schemes like financial inclusion as well as strengthening last-mile delivery in healthcare services. These together will lay the foundation for sustained growth and opening opportunities for private investment. We need to fit the hospital in retrofit or forward format where we can change the settings in as short a period as possible.
India’s public health expenditure stood at 1.15 per cent of its gross domestic product – this must take a quantum leap and must be more than doubled to reach the goal of 2.5 per cent set by the National Health Policy 2017, while being further increased to 3-4 per cent of the GDP in medium term.
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