India lags behind peers, only one physician per 1000 persons

New Delhi [India], Sept 7 (ANI): With less than 1 physician per 1000 population, India is well behind its peer countries. It needs an additional 3.6 million hospital beds to reach the recommended capacity. Only about 27 percent of India's population is covered around any form of health insurance and the out of pocket expenditure on health is 62.4 percent in India as compared to the world average of 18.2 percent. It was revealed in a report released by the CII-Deloitte on Thursday.

The report claims that the medical technology sector, which is currently valued at USD 4.9 billion is growing at a CAGR of 17 percent and would be a force multiplier in covering the healthcare gaps in India.

The CII- Deloitte report titled 'Medical Technology Shaping Healthcare for all in India' was released at the 10th Medical Technology Conference organized by CII in New Delhi. It has identified four core areas to unlock the huge latent potential, such as creating an enabling regulatory landscape, incentivizing investment, identifying the right verticals for manufacturing and importantly focusing on innovation and design products suitable to India.

"Medical technology plays a critical role at all stages of the healthcare continuum including diagnostics, treatment and monitoring. The modern medical technology breakthroughs includes remote diagnosis, monitoring, E-ICU's and 3D printing that can help us fulfill the objectives of equity, affordability, quality and preventive health, all of which are enshrined in India's new National Health Policy of 2017," says Charu Sehgal, Partner, Life Sciences and Health Care, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP.

The report also highlighted how to leverage the disruptive technology to make healthcare accessible and affordable that would help medical technology to bridge the gap between healthcare provider and patient, ingrain the concept of wellness and importantly overcome the constraints rendered by infrastructure, geographical and affordability constraints.

"The removal of existing barriers for growth will ultimately lead to increased investment in Indian Med Tech sector in the form of local manufacturing. The shift should be towards Make in India for the world," said Himanshu Baid, chairman, CII Medical Technology Division.

The CII- Deloitte report is an outcome of an extensive research and several rounds of deliberations with medical device industry. Experts talks about the key steps taken by government and industry to ensure the medical technology industry progress on its growth path. (ANI)