COUNTRY REPORT: INDIA
The Indian government injected $1.98b in response to COVID-19.
Are India’s underfunded hospitals equipped to deal with a pandemic? The country is unable to raise healthcare expenditure by more than 3.8% of GDP, compared to the Asia Pacific average of 6.64%
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ndia has ramped up investments in healthcare in response to the COVID-19 crisis, but analysts have expressed worries that this will not be enough to address the problems faced by the country’s severely overcrowded and underfunded hospitals. In April, the government injected US$1.98b, with US$1.03b set aside for immediate COVID-19 emergency response and the rest for mediumterm support (1-4 years), according to a press release from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The support includes the development of diagnostics and COVID-19 dedicated treatment facilities, as well as the centralised procurement of essential medical equipment and drugs required for treatment of infected and recovering patients. This will also include the strengthening and building of 24
HEALTHCARE ASIA
resilience for the national and state health systems to support prevention and preparedness for future disease outbreaks, the setting up of laboratories and bolstering of surveillance activities, bio-security preparedness, pandemic research and proactively engage communities and conduct risk communication initiatives and activities. With these investments, Fitch Solutions projected the country’s healthcare expenditure to rise by 14.6% in 2020. This came as no surprise for GlobalData’s pharma analyst Sasmitha Sahu, as the crisis has seen some unprecedented decisions taken swiftly by the government. “So far, India has managed to keep the COVID-19 curve moderately steep with its key response strategies like early lockdown and isolation measures. With the lockdown further
The healthcare delivery systems in the public sector appear to be insufficient to match up with the growing needs of the population.
extended, concrete funding will help strengthen the Indian healthcare infrastructure to synergistically contain the spread of the pandemic, manage active cases, as well as bolster India’s preparedness to fight any future pandemic,” Sahu said. However, analysts expressed that despite the additional funding, the budget for the country’s healthcare sector remained too low to deal with the pandemic. According to Fitch Solutions, the continued lack of medical funding and healthcare infrastructure could mean that the potential epidemic can turn for the worse in India if it is not adequately contained. With only 8.5 hospital beds per 10,000 people and 8 physicians per 10,000, its report stated that the country’s healthcare sector is simply not equipped for such a crisis. “Moreover, the significant inefficiency, dysfunctioning, and
