As COVID cases continue to spike across many parts of the country, the megacities of Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai collectively account for about two thirds of India’s cases. Health infrastructure has been sorely tested and it’s led to a clash between private healthcare providers and the state and central establishment.
What are hospitals bracing for in the months to come and where have fault lines shown up ?
In an interview to Mitali Mukherjee, Ms Shobana Kamineni , Executive Vice Chairperson at the Apollo Hospitals Group & Past President CII said India would be lucky if it finished at 1 crore cases of COVID nationwide.
She also said that the big challenge remains a rise and spread rather than a rise and ebb of the pandemic.
Ms Kamineni said that while there was a glimmer of hope in the fact that medical care providers were now being able to tackle the complications that were arising amongst COVID patients, the disease was an ‘expensive’ one where the critical care cost was actually very high. She believes in such a scenario government interference in pricing was preventing hospitals from spending adequately. While some nursing homes and healthcare providers had certainly tried to take advantage of the situation, Ms Kamineni believes greater dialogue between private health care providers and state governments was required to find the most pragmatic pricing solution.
