Healthcare Sector’s Fight With Covid 19

The health sector in India, one of the major contributors to India’s economy, is experiencing the wrath of COVID-19. The private health care sector describes a sharp decline in business post-lock-down. The healthcare sector is at the epicenter of this unprecedented global pandemic, and the private sector has risen to the occasion, by offering to the government all the support it needs, be it testing support, preparing isolation beds for the treatment of Covid-19 positive patients, or deploying types of equipment and staff in identified nodal hospitals.

Elective surgeries and medical tourism were the two biggest revenue generators for the private healthcare business in India which has suffered the most as a result of lockdown. The drop-in business makes the private healthcare sectors put a big question mark on their survival post-pandemic.

Approximately 70 percent of the healthcare services in India are provided by the private healthcare sector. The single greatest worry for all private hospitals is cash flow management and how to meet both payroll and material costs. As the Outpatient and Inpatient occupancy volumes have crashed significantly across India impacting revenues big time, it will probably take at least 6 months to 12 months for recovery. In these…