Healthcare market in India to cross US$ 372 billion by year-end, says expert

Visakhapatnam Driven by rising income, better health awareness, lifestyle diseases and increasing access to insurance, the healthcare market in India is expected to reach US$ 372 billion by 2022-end, said Dr. V. Murali Krishna, convenor, Healthcare, Wellness & Tourism Panel, CII Andhra Pradesh & Managing Director, Mahatma Gandhi Cancer Hospital & Research Centre on Saturday.

He was speaking at a Nursing Conclave conducted by CII AP chapter here. He mentioned that Indian healthcare sector is one of India's largest employers as it employs a total of 4.7 million people. India is in need of 4.3 million more nurses by 2024.

CII Andhra Pradesh conducted the conclave held to recognise and appreciate the crucial role played by the nurses in the healthcare system and deliberate on strategies for improvement of techniques, focusing on imparting emerging technologies and best practices to face the challenges with high quality services and patient care.

Dr. Muralikrishna said nurses and midwives make up more than half the healthcare workforce worldwide, and the WHO estimates that this year there would be a shortage of nearly nine million nurses. As the world faces growing healthcare shortages, there are efforts being made to reach a goal of universal health coverage around the world by 2030. Nurses need to be on the frontline.

In his keynote address at Nursing Conclave, Dr. T. Ravi Raju, Pro Chancellor, The Apollo University, Chittoor & visiting professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston mentioned that nurses played essential role during Covid-19 pandemic by being at frontline patient care in hospitals and actively involved with evaluation and monitoring in the community. He felt that nursing is an emotionally and personally rewarding career with excellent job prospects with a wide range of specialization options and India has been the world's largest source of immigrant nurses and demand of Indian nurses has been increasing worldwide.

Dr. G. Buchi Raju, Principal, Andhra Medical College said that nurses are the heart of the medical profession and play a vital role in providing care, comfort and compassion for their patients and patients' families with several ethical principles that guide their philosophy of practice throughout all tasks in the workplace. He felt that nurses collaboratively work with physicians, therapists, the patient, the patient's family, and other team members that focuses on treating illness to improve quality of life.

S.P. Ravindra, Chairman, Alwardas Group stated that following Standard Operating Procedure in the healthcare sector is very important to complete a job safely with no adverse effect on health which maximises the probability of a beneficial health outcome in an efficient manner. He said that nurses have worked relentlessly during and post-Covid to treat the patients with utmost care for healing patients and saving their lives.

Ragam Kishore, Chairman, CII Visakhapatnam and CEO & Managing Director, Vizag Seaports Pvt Ltd said that the nursing response to the pandemic crisis had gone way beyond the core purpose of the nurses. The works put in by nurses during the COVID-19 crisis were a powerful & practical demonstration of the potential that nurses possess, to address big health care challenges. He felt that the healthcare industry cannot be imagined without nurses which is a noble profession with the highest ethics quotient. Nurses are the ones who are closest to the needy and the suffering at times when the families are not around.

Eminent speakers included Bobby Ramesh, Director of Nursing, Continental Hospitals, Hyderabad & Principal Assessor NABH, Usha Devi (retd), Group Chief Nursing Officer, Ramesh Hospitals, Vijayawada, Prameela Korampalli, Chief Nursing Officer, Aware Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Hyderabad, Sara Oommen, Nursing Superintendent & Associate Professor, St. John's Medical College Hospital & College of Nursing, Bengaluru, Archana Morey, Vice Principal-Academics, GITAM Institute of Nursing, Visakhapatnam, Glory Cynthia, AGM (Nursing), AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, Dr. Usha Pantula, training consultant, Corporate Life Skills & POS and Dr. Pujitha Josyula, pychologist & neuro-mentor, 99 MINDFIT.