Providing Affordable Out-of-hospital Care
During the pandemic, hospitals became the source of care, cure and, unfortunately, the risk for infection. In India, this sheds light on the need for more infrastructure, medical professionals, equipment and relief. While all these things will take time to build, Neeraj Jain, Country Director - India, PATH aptly states that COVID-19 has grown the need for appropriate out-of-hospital care.
Vivek Srivastava, Co-Founder & CEO, HCAH explains, “Hospitals provide tertiary care that involves direct treatment from specialists, using specialised equipment. COVID-19 has shown us that India needs to build its healthcare infrastructure which will take time. There is scope to create healthcare access to patients outside of the hospital which can create access to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well.”
On the diagnostics front, Deepak Sahni, Founder, Healthians states, “Diagnostics, lab tests, reports are all systems that hospitals have that you can now also get at home. Saving time, costs and creating access for more people.”
Prabhdeep Singh, Founder & CEO, StanPlus-Red.Health, speaks about providing life-saving medical attention to patients in under 10 minutes. He elaborates, “Triage, treat and transport are the three verticals we are building in out-of-hospital care.” The care needs to come to the patient immediately. Waiting to go to hospitals is both time-consuming and expensive.
Planning for long term healthcare requirements, Nanki Singh, Founder, ProTribe Seniors adds, “Technology is the only way to create preventive, rehabilitative and curative methods for seniors and, this technology adoption has to happen at a faster rate. There is no way hospitals can match this form of out-of-hospital care.”
Moving to out-of-hospital care carries larger, long term benefits. Vipin Pathak, Co-Founder & CEO, Care24 says, “If we move from a hospital to the patient location, structurally it becomes more patient-centric. This allows patients and their health to be seen as a whole. We have a long way to go there, but I believe that 70 per cent of care that is delivered in the hospital has the potential to be done at home.”
