New Delhi: There is growing acceptance of “new-age” healthcare delivery systems, with the role of technology in the sector increasing too, notes a new report that urges the government to devise more uniform and progressive healthcare regulations that are “harmonised” across states and also ensure patient safety and data privacy.
The report, titled ‘New age healthcare delivery models in India’, has been prepared by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and consultancy firm KPMG. It was released during the FICCIHeal summit in Delhi Thursday.
Among other things, it urges the government to leverage the advances in healthcare in order to improve public health infrastructure in India.
Policies and regulations, the report says, need to evolve to accommodate and foster the innovative solutions presented by new-age healthcare models.
The report — a copy of which is with ThePrint — classifies new-age healthcare delivery systems under four broad categories: self-care, primary care and pre-hospitalisation, hospital care and post-hospitalisation care.
The self-care model includes fitness and wellness, health and wellness monitoring, mental health, nutrition and diet planning, health condition management, health screening and testing through various apps, and digital service providers, the report says.
Pre-hospitalisation care, meanwhile, is described as including primary and specialised care clinics, retail pharmacies such as e-pharmacies, diagnostics, and tele-health service.
“The current regulatory framework is divided between the central government and state governments with disparity, and host of different agencies and regulating bodies will require a rejig and one approach to respond to the emerging healthcare landscape,” the report says.
“India requires a uniform and progressive healthcare regulations system that is harmonised across geographies for ease-of-doing business for new-age models and to ensure patient safety, data privacy, and equitable access to healthcare,” it adds.
These reforms must be agile and adaptable, able to evolve in response to ongoing technological advancements. and changes in the healthcare landscape, it says.
Dr Narottam Puri, adviser-medical operations, Fortis Healthcare, and also an adviser to FICCI Health Services Committee, said at the release of the report that the idea behind coming up with it was to draw the government’s attention towards the issue and initiate a policy dialogue around it.
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Data-driven healthcare
The report stresses that the future of healthcare will be data-driven, and centred on personalised care backed by personal health records and health data exchange across providers.
“Implementing secure and interoperable electronic health record systems to improve care coordination and patient outcomes is important,” it says.
The digital health ecosystem in India will depend on the successful implementation of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission — which looks to digitise healthcare infrastructure, complete with a unique ID for citizens — across the public and private health sector in terms of embedding the health UID, health facility registry (HFR), healthcare professionals registry (HPR), and personal health records (PHR) across the value chain, the report says.
Also, the new-age healthcare delivery models will require mandating interoperability, standardising data formats and developing quality and safety standards specifically for digital health products and services.
In India, the integration of new-age healthcare models, digital health solutions, innovative delivery systems, and strategic partnerships has the potential to bridge public health gaps like accessibility, availability, and affordability, the report notes.
It also implores the public health sector to explore models like remote health management, telehealth services, health monitoring & tracking, e-ICU, care coordination, surgical care management, strategic partnership-based hospital care and home-care services.
“Unless new models of care and approaches are adopted, there are limited opportunities to improve the public health system in India in the view of shortage of human resources in healthcare, shortage of beds in healthcare facilities, and challenges in population health management,” it says.
Critical gaps
In 2018-19, the FICCI-KPMG report says, India’s total health expenditure was estimated at Rs 5,96,440 crore, which amounted to 3.2 percent of the GDP and Rs 4,470 per capita.
In 2022-23, the expenditure was down to 2.1 percent of GDP, which the report notes is the lowest among BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations.
And while India’s out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure as a percentage of current health expenditure (CHE) decreased from 64.7 percent in 2015 to 50.6 per cent in 2020, it is significantly higher than in many developed nations.
The report also notes that, as of 12 May 2021, there were only 1.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people. The number was 0.5 for public hospital beds, which is much lower than the World Health Organization recommendation of 2.9 beds per 1,000 population, it adds.
The report also underlines that the average operating revenue per bed in the last few years has increased by nearly 50 percent for the leading hospitals in India.
With 14-16 percent medical inflation observed in 2021, the overall hospitalisation costs have increased as hospitals factor in reasons such as inflation in material costs, medical devices, equipment, consumables and staff costs, it says.
However, it also points out that the healthcare industry is undergoing a transformation with the entry of new players from non-healthcare sectors, such as technology and e-retail giants.
“These tech behemoths are leveraging their deep expertise in cutting-edge technology and fostering a more patient-centric approach to healthcare delivery,” the report says.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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