It will result in many benefits for both healthcare sector/ industry as well as citizens of India
Supporting Government’s initiative of Make in India Campaign, NATHEALTH (Healthcare Federation of India) has started working on a concept note on ‘Make For India in Healthcare/ Medical Technology’.
Anjan Bose, Secretary General, NATHEALTH said, “Make in India is an excellent concept, in order to articulate the steps for necessary incentivisation for making in India. At first demand has to be created in order to build ‘economy of scale’ which will justify investments for local innovation and manufacturing. It will also take some time. Medical technology and diagnostic services could be two areas of consideration. Demand will be the basis of making choices for such local manufacturing. India already manufacturers many medical products like diagnostic X-ray machines, ECG machines, ultrasound, some internal devices etc… A demand-supply gap matrix will create the roadmap for the needed focus areas.”
It will result in many benefits for both healthcare sector/ industry as well as citizens of India. Past studies have revealed that around 30-35 per cent of cost of healthcare delivery is towards technology. Therefore any cost reduction due to local innovation/ manufacturing should translate into lower cost of delivery and therefore increase affordability.
For solution of this problem, Bose emphasised, “India still imports around 80-85 per cent of its medical technology. With judicious plans and efficient implementation, the private sector and government need to work hand in hand as one team to make further progress and make India one of the global hubs of innovation and manufacturing in healthcare particularly medical technology. We can also learn from the models adopted by other countries successful in this area. Ireland is an example.”
EH News Bureau
- Advertisement -
Comments are closed.