India’s buoyant healthcare industry is growing at an exponential pace. With a large population spread across rural and urban belts, increasing awareness about health and rising investments, the country’s healthcare industry is expected to touch $738 billion turnover by the end of 2026. However, rural medical facilities face innumerable critical challenges today, including severe staff shortages, inadequate infrastructure and poor accessibility, despite the government of India’s initiatives like ‘Ayushman Bharat’ – a national healthcare initiative that provides a cashless cover for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.
About 65 per cent of India’s population resides in rural areas, yet almost 70 per cent of the country’s healthcare infrastructure is located in the urban areas. Large private hospitals are generally inaccessible to the poor and lower-income groups of society due to high costs, often resulting in catastrophic health expenditure. Also, about 64 per cent of the healthcare expenditure in India is out of the pocket, with private hospitals, particularly for-profit corporate entities, being the major drivers of this burden. It is estimated that over 7 per cent of India’s population is pushed into poverty every year, mainly due to high out-of-the-pocket healthcare costs. In India, about 76 per cent of patients using private hospitals are not covered by any health insurance. It is estimated that nearly 45 per cent of the population is not yet covered by a medical insurance policy. Urban areas of India (62 per cent) have higher coverage, compared to the rural areas (41 per cent). Whilst India’s overall population is forecast to grow by 0.8-0.9 per cent annually, the population aged 45 and above is expected to increase at a faster rate of 2.5-3 per cent. This may lead to a surge in demand for the best healthcare facilities at affordable costs, going forward.
Unfortunately, private corporate hospital chains have exhibited low or passive participation in government-funded health insurance schemes like ‘Ayushman Bharat’, because the reimbursement rates are lower than their input costs.
Subsidised treatment
In such a scenario, reputed not-for-profit or charitable hospitals in India have proved to be the saviours for millions of patients seeking world-class healthcare at affordable rates. One of them is a 10-year-old, 900-bed state-of-the-art Kiran Multi-super-speciality Hospital & Research Centre operated by ‘Samast Patidar Aarogya Trust’ and attached to Kiran Medical College, Vadod village, Gujarat. “Over 60,000 patients get highly subsidised treatment every year from 105 super specialists and 300 specialist doctors, who relentlessly work round the clock across 45 departments in our hospital,” says Mathurbhai Savani, chairman, Kiran Hospital, a renowned social worker and recipient of the Padma Shree Award. More than 8,000 medical services are rendered every month to needy patients at Kiran Hospital under the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme, Savani adds. “In the last 10 years, over 5 million patients have benefited from our hospital’s services,” affirms Savani. “And, no delivery charges are levied on any mother-patient when her girl child is born at Kiran Hospital. Also, all patients admitted to the hospital are provided blood free of cost, if and when required. Some 300 bottles of blood are supplied free of cost every day to needy patients at the hospital. While processing and testing each unit of blood costs about Rs1,000, the hospital bears this expense to ensure free availability to patients. A dedicated team of about 125 members of the staff manages this initiative.”
Kiran Hospital’s ‘Bharat Vrudh Vandana’ initiative, aimed at helping senior citizens, continues to provide healthcare support to aged patients and also organises music, fellowship and dinner events at regular intervals. Over 25,000 senior citizens have registered under this novel scheme so far, Savani says, and they have access to a special emergency mobile phone contact that facilitates swift and immediate transport through specialised ambulances to Kiran Hospital in case of medical emergency.
In addition to curative care, reputed not-for-profit hospitals focus on preventive care and public health awareness, too. Supported by donations, grants and, sometimes, government aid, such hospitals play a pivotal and highly beneficial role in India’s healthcare sector, which is grappling with multiple challenges, including low public health expenditure by the government that allocates a measly 3.3 per cent of its GDP to healthcare.