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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 13 Indian healthcare industry seeking infrastructure status has set out to take on the looming challenges of shortage of beds and skilled resources that the country faces, and is hoping the Government intensifies its support.

Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Wockhardt and Max Healthcare amongst others shared the industry perspective at the fourth India Health Summit. Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group stressed on the need for financial investments to the tune of $80 billion.

“To meet acceptable standards of bed per population laid out by the WHO, we require about 80,000 beds per year over the next five years,” he said. The biggest challenge, said Dr Reddy who is the current Chairman, CII National Committee on Healthcare, was to make healthcare available to the billion plus population of the country.

Dr Naresh Trehan, President, Indian Health Care Federation which co-organised the event along with CII, added that infrastructure would have to be doubled to meet these demands.

Mr Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals Group was of the belief that Public Private Partnership would be the key driver in the future. Frameworks to make these partnerships a reality, however, were yet to be put in place, he said. Mr Analjit Singh, Chairman,

Max Healthcare pointed out that Private-Private Partnerships were also under-explored.

The two-day summit inaugurated by the Union Minister of Tourism, Ms Ambika Soni, saw the Minister sharing optimism about the medical tourism industry. Investment to the tune of $6.5 billion was in the pipeline and at least three companies had approached the Government to set up budget hotels along side major hospital infrastructure, said the minister.

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