[vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 1: INTRODUCTION[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 2: METHODOLOGY[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 3: FMCG[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 4: HEALTH[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 5: FINANCE[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 6: TEXTILE[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 7: HOUSING[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 8: TELECOMMUNICATIONS[vc_separator color=”sky”]Part 9: DIVERSIFIED MANUFACTURING[vc_separator color=”sky”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_single_image image=”2200″ img_size=”medium”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1455703979344{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;}”]
Part 4: Health
The list of enterprises include Vaatsalya and Narayana Healthcare.
Vaatsalya
Private healthcare companies have been reluctant to cater to the poor or vulnerable population fearing narrowing of profits. Most private healthcare facilities are in large cities and metropolitans and focus on tertiary healthcare that is most profitable to the healthcare segment. Primary and secondary healthcare accounts for 60% & 30% respectively which leaves an enormous unmet demand in these sectors, especially in the rural areas.
More than 70% of the population of India lives in villages and rural areas while 80% of the hospitals that employs 85% of India’s medical practitioners are in metros and large towns leaving little hope for the rural populace. The majority of the healthcare facilities are in urban/metro areas and not accessible to these families. As a result, poor in the rural areas are forced to choose either the perfect practitioner present in their communities or state run government hospitals that have inadequate treatment facilities and unhygienic conditions. Patients who belong to the weaker section of the society sometimes have to access private healthcare services leaving them under enormous debt. Rural population in India have several barriers in accessing healthcare facilities including limited information on treatment, inability to pay, and inadequate health systems. Vaatsalya identified the need of affordable & accessible healthcare facilities in low income areas and found a business opportunity in addressing the need.
Vaatsalya is bridging this gap by building primary and secondary care hospitals in semi-urban and rural areas. Vaatsalya is a chain of hospitals in rural and semi-urban areas. The presence of hospitals in these areas significantly reduces the inconvenience and expenses the patients used to incur while travelling long distances to get good quality healthcare. Today, its 10 hospitals — eight in Karnataka and two in Andhra Pradesh — treat over 300,000 patients annually.
There were some initial challenges in setting up business processes as it was difficult to attract high-quality medical practitioners from cities to rural areas. Vaatsalya resolved this issue by creating a doctor-centric model. Under this model, doctors were hired based on their semi-urban & rural background. The Hospitals were made personally motivating and professionally rewarding to retain the doctors. Vaatsalya Hospitals are 50-70 beds in size have all the facilities provided by hospitals in urban areas comprising of Intensive Care Units and Maternity facilities. Also, there is a 24/7 pharmacy, basic laboratory and diagnostics facility. The innovative and inspiring business model has made quality healthcare accessible to the less-privileged creating a positive impact on the society.
Narayana Healthcare
Narayana healthcare was founded by Devi Shetty and operates in the healthcare industry in India. It has a host of super speciality hospitals across the country. Traditionally, healthcare is thought to be the responsibility of the state. However, since independence the government has had limited resources for the development of the healthcare potential of the people.
At the time of Independence, the life expectancy at birth for an individual in India was 32 years, it has more than doubled to 66 years in 2013. Similarly, the infant mortality rate (IMR or the number of babies who die before their first birthday in a given year per 1,000 live births in that year) has gone down from 164 in early 1950s to 40 in 2013.
International comparisons immediately raise concerns about the how badly broken our public health system is. The fact is that almost half the children under five years of age are stunted. The IMR at 42 per 1,000 live births is high when one looks at international peers. The proportion of underweight children at 43 percent reflects a crisis of sorts because the figure for sub-Saharan Africa is 21 percent. The immunisation coverage of DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) is 72 percent in India which is almost similar to sub-Saharan Africa’s 71 percent. Similarly, more people are being diagnosed with lifestyle diseases like diabetes. There are close to 67 million people living with diabetes in India in the age bracket of 20-79 years according to international Diabetes Association (IDA).
All these problems pose serious health concerns. To overcome the problems there are various activities the private sector in India is engaged with. These range from from the very basic healthcare services to the more complex ones like hospitals in rural India. Narayana has been at the forefront of building multi-speciality hospitals in the rural areas.
For this they have hired L&T to build 300- bed super speciality hospitals. India’s competitive edge lies in its human resources in the industry. India produces more than 50,000 doctors a year compared with 19,000 doctors a year for US and thus India has a potential to compete in the healthcare industry.
The vision of the company is to provide high quality healthcare, with care and compassion, at an affordable cost, on a large scale. The need is to go beyond the traditional models of delivery and look at innovative and new ways of healthcare financing.
The industry is one of the biggest industries in the world and one that will require concerted effort on the part of all the stakeholders especially the industry to make it globally competitive and produce a workforce which is healthy.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
