Lack of funding, infrastructure looms over India's healthcare sector

The country only has 8 physicians per 10,000 population.

Despite potentially seeing a rise in healthcare expenditure, India is still lacking in medical funding and healthcare infrastructure to be able to tackle the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Fitch Solutions.

The country’s total healthcare expenditure is expected to rise 14.6% in 2020, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that $13m (INR150b) will be devoted to health infrastructure, including testing facilities, personal protective equipment, isolation beds, ICU beds and ventilators.

However, India’s healthcare sector is poorly equipped to deal with the crisis, the report noted, with 8.5 hospital beds per 10,000 population and 8 physicians per 10,000.

In addition, over 80% of the population still does not have any significant health insurance coverage and about 68% of the Indian population has limited or no access to essential medicines.

A study from the Public Health Foundation of India also revealed that the availability of free medicines in public healthcare facilities has plummeted from 31.2% to 8.9% for inpatient care and from 17.8% to 5.9% for outpatient care over the last two decades.

A weak healthcare system, with already stretched medical facilities, will also keep the country from flattening the infection curve, which would worsen the economy over the first half of FY2020/21 at least.