Improvement in healthcare management, coronavirus discussed at 26th Medical Fair India

From the global outbreak of coronavirus to improvement in healthcare facilities, several healthcare issues were discussed at the 26th edition of the three-day Medical Fair India 2020 at Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre here, according to a press statement.

Rajiv Nath, Founder and Forum Coordinator, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED), was quoted as saying that the world is now watching at India as a possible second source of supply after China.

"So we have definitely a lot of you driving the race for the last few weeks about coronavirus and about the disruptions to supply chain all over the world of medical device industry to importers to healthcare providers of sourcing products. The silver lining is that the world is now watching at India as a possible second source of supply after China," Nath said.

 

India has 39 confirmed cases of deadly coronavirus so far. The disease, which first broke out in China, has left at least 3200 people dead globally.

Discussing the scope for investment in the healthcare industry, Dr Girdhar Gyani, Director General, Association of Healthcare Providers (India), said, "There is no need to panic. Although there is a slowdown all over the world, I must tell people here that we have 1.6 million beds and we need 3.5 million beds in the next three years. This means there is so much scope in for investment in the healthcare industry including equipment. In the next five years, the necessity would be 5 million beds. Kind of requirement which has been projecting from Government of India is to set up 3000 hospitals of 100 beds in tier II and tier III cities, which is a huge opportunity for the industry."

Touching upon the points on how to streamline manpower planning, plugging the gaps in financial planning, Dr Mudit Saxena, managing director and CEO, Ovum Hospitals said: "There are ways to improve the revenue of the hospitals such as utilizing the unutilized machines in the hospitals such as a discount can be given for MRIs for the night time when MRI machines are not utilized."

The "Smart Hospitals" platform is created as a new entity in this year of Medical Fair India. The objective is to help the small and midsized hospital owners to rethink their business models, create new opportunities by evolving newer smart ways of delivering healthcare.

The event started on March 5 and concluded on March 7.