• As per the 52nd Round of National Sample survey Organisation, 81% of the outpatient care and 56% of inpatient care is being provided by the private sector in the country.
• Large hospitals run by trusts or corporates that are located primarily in cities and towns across the country. The 1990s have seen significant entry of Indian companies in medical care. Most of these players have focused on large, single or multi-specialty facilities located in large cities. These include Apollo, Fortis, Max, Wockhardt and Escorts, among others.
• Leveraging India's IT strengths, telemedicine is being tried out at a few hospitals. This holds promising potential for providing quality medical care even in remote parts of the country.
Opportunities
• Healthcare is expected to be one of India's largest industries in the near term with present growth rates of around 13 per cent annually. Further, India needs
to add 80,000 hospital beds a year for the next 5 years according to a WHO report.
• The opening up of the insurance sector to private players is expected to further boost the healthcare industry. Health Insurance will make healthcare affordable to a large number of people.
• There is an increasing preference for private medical care amongst the urban population.
• The National Health Policy (NHP) _ 2002 announced by the Government envisages increasing public health investment to 2% of GDP by the year 2010 from the existing level of 0.9% and the total health investment to 6% from the current level of 5.2%. The NHP-2002 welcomes the participation of the private sector in all areas of health services-primary, secondary and tertiary.
