Impact of Corona Virus on the Healthcare sector
The Healthcare industry is having a huge crisis in its supply chain like other industries due to coronavirus. But healthcare facilities are affected in several ways like forgery of face masks and shortages of hand sanitizers are some of the huge effects on healthcare supply chains worldwide.
Meghana
Apr 29, 2020 12:51
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The Healthcare industry is having a huge crisis in its supply chain like other industries due to coronavirus. But healthcare facilities are affected in several ways like forgery of face masks and shortages of hand sanitizers are some of the huge effects on healthcare supply chains worldwide. The Coronavirus keeps on affecting the markets in different ways.
Government hospitals are facing now is over-crowding due to coronavirus. It will be interesting to note that 85% is marked to be safe occupancy rate in any hospital. It is quite unfortunate that in India hospitals usually have hundred percent occupancy and this sudden outbreak of Covid-19 has led to situation of over-crowding. Now the hospitals in India must bear the brunt of this additional pressure as they are expected to work efficiently at the occupancy rate even more. All this is leading to serious consequences like patients and ambulance backlogs, delaying or cancellation of surgeries, early discharge of non-essential patients, shifting of patients to other hospitals, etc. Both government and hospital management are taking measures for emergency infrastructure building to increase the capacity of the hospitals. Government has also initiated tie ups with private healthcare institutions in order to share the burden and fight a united war against the national emergency.
Impact on India’s medical devices, healthcare sector industry
China imports consumables, disposables and capital equipment including orthopaedic implants, gloves, syringes, bandages, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging devices. Due to the current crisis in China, the medical device manufacturers across India are finding it difficult to source import raw materials and electronic components from Chinese factories. Healthcare facilities stock up the products available by considering the tight demand and hospitals are doing it without worrying about their budget. But that kind of impulse buying may add financial strain to the healthcare industry due to procurement inefficiencies and wasted spending. These days, every hospital is overstocking essential protection devices, despite their budgets. The medical devices industry and healthcare sector is at the global pandemic challenge, 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. Also, some of the factories in China have restored operation, shortage of some critical electronic parts and raw material still exists. This is adversely affecting the margins and profitability of Indian companies importing medical devices and small components to manufacture finished products. This can also put upward pressure on prices of medical devices in the short term.
Healthcare industry is suffering from acute troubles due to the international health crisis. Most hospitals and other healthcare facilities are having trouble to procure, source and manage stocks of basic medical equipment to deal with the virus.
Impact on Pharma industries in India
Low capacity utilization of approximately 30 to 40% is another major problem faced by Indian pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is having a huge crisis due to corona virus. India imports 85% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from China, this over dependence for API on China has led to conditions like disruption of supply of raw material and price volatility in the country.
Impact on Testing labs in India
Another aspect of healthcare industry working strongly to fight Covid-19 is labs. India has NIV and 52 other labs registered under ICMR. All these labs are well equipped to test the presence of coronavirus in the given sample. It will be interesting to note that each lab in the country can efficiently test up to 25000 test samples. Government is constantly working to add new labs in the list in order to prevent delay of testing the samples.
https://www.medibrandox.com/blog/healthcare/how-covid-19-is-affecting-healthcare-medical-industries
https://www.medibrandox.com/blog/healthcare/impact-of-corona-virus-on-healthcare-industry
