Why Do We Need Specialized Healthcare Programs in India?

The Indian healthcare industry has gone through phenomenal development over the past decades. The immense growth of the sector, owing to the private player investments and world-class facilities/services, has made the Indian healthcare emerge as a global top-performer. This continual growth of the sector has extended far beyond the realm of hospitals, in providing curative, preventive, palliative, and rehabilitative healthcare services. Moreover, the increasing demand for healthcare services in recent years and the existence of non-communicable diseases has posed the need for specialized healthcare programs to cater to the specific needs of the people. As a result, the healthcare industry today is replacing its traditional healthcare delivery model with a patient-centric, quality-focused, specialized healthcare that drives a holistic benefit.

In India, the growth of specialized healthcare practice is seen as a part of the expanding scope of healthcare services and delivery. The specialized healthcare is a broad arena and encompasses everything from the government primary healthcare centers, huge private hospital chains to specialized programs, luxury services, and telemedicine. With the country moving up the economic ladder, there is an increasing demand from different pockets of the population for different kind of services. This is why healthcare programs targeting the needs of the specific demographic population or geographic location is increasingly becoming popular. The specialized healthcare is indeed essential to cater to the existing demands of the healthcare world as well as the masses.

Aim at the Rural Healthcare

In India, rural healthcare is becoming one of the biggest challenges that the country is facing today. The rural areas in India are subject to poor sanitation/healthcare facilities, high mortality rates, lack of health awareness, and limited access to healthcare, making the rural scenario vulnerable to health problems. With more than 70% of the country’s population living in rural setup, it is important that we bring prime focus on rural healthcare. Generally, the majority of rural population rely on primary public healthcare, since the local private care is expensive and sometimes unregulated. Considering the entire scenario, it is important that specialized healthcare programs are introduced to rural areas to bring about health awareness and deliver quality and cost-effective healthcare services for diagnosis and treatment of various health hazards. In that direction, the Government needs to implement policies and programs that help meet the goals of healthy rural India.

Specialized rural healthcare programs should aim to educate the rural population, making them aware of personal hygiene and addressing health issues like vaccination, illness prevention, etc., through organizing health camps at regular intervals to provide various health solutions. These specialized health camps should be targeted towards the rural community, imparting them with the necessary health education and sensitizing them on preventive and promotive health matters.

Specialized Health Camps

Health camps are organized for specific health issues like eye care, dengue, malaria, TB, skin infections, STD/HIV diseases, and more. These specialized health camps are aimed towards both rural and urban population, encouraging them to incorporate healthy habits and take on preventive measures to communicable diseases. In addition, people in urban and suburban regions are prone to non-communicable diseases, owing to unhealthy lifestyle practices. These specialized health camps serve to generate awareness in general population, spurring interest to maintain health hygiene, integrate healthy lifestyle, and boost daily nutrition intake. Apart from that, there is a need for special attention to be given to women’s reproductive health, particularly, in regions where maternal/infant mortality is high. These women healthcare camps foster young women to seek medical aid for maintaining their reproductive health and well-being in the long run.

Home Healthcare

Home-based healthcare is gaining traction in India and is poised to become an organized, technology-led healthcare industry with standards and protocols. Currently, it is estimated that the home healthcare market in India would increase into a $2 billion to $4 billion-a-year market, driven by the increasing geriatric population, prevalence of chronic diseases, and the demand for quality post-operative and primary healthcare for aged. Thus, home healthcare is gradually taking over as the need of the hour. It is mostly targeted towards patients suffering from chronic illnesses like cardiac problems, respiratory failure, and Alzheimer’s, who do not need hospitalization but requires constant monitoring and specialized attention. Home-based healthcare bridge the gap for these group of people through advanced medical gadgets like telemedicine, giving the possibility for hospital-like attention offered with remarkable ease of home. The recent advances in communication and medical technology have brought in new breakthroughs in the sector, enabling the patients to avail hospital settings in the home environment.

Specialized Healthcare for Senior Citizens

Senior healthcare is gaining more and more significance in India with the country having the largest geriatric population in the world. A complete and comprehensive health awareness program focused towards aged population in both rural and urban areas helps make the people aware of how to maintain a healthy lifestyle at old age and undertake various preventive measures.

Today, the healthcare industry has realized the importance of specialized healthcare and has come up with various initiatives for the benefit of the wider population. The positivity with which today’s healthcare sector is functioning has elicited a domino effect on so many inter-related subsectors and this trend is expected to heighten in the coming years. Overall, with the continuing effort and need for specialized healthcare programs, the consumers will benefit the most as the healthcare providers and the industry is poised to leverage technology to help patients lead better, healthier lives.

With the healthcare industry identifying the importance of technology and administration to improve medical infrastructure and facilities, it is high time the healthcare professionals are trained and developed to be skilled and knowledgeable for the future healthcare industry. IIHMR is a pioneer institution offering professional courses in the domain, by imparting comprehensive and practical knowledge in healthcare and hospital management. With a cutting-edge curriculum and highly efficient, experienced faculty, IIHMR is committed to developing efficient health/ hospital administrators for future. Students at IIHMR are trained and prepared on all the latest advancements and practices in the healthcare sector, which makes them better capable of adapting themselves well with the demands and needs of the healthcare world.

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