The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought focus on the continued lack of medical investment and healthcare infrastructure in India, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The dearth of beds in public hospitals due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases has forced some state governments in India to use hotel rooms and other facilities as make shift hospitals. In addition, the cost of treatment at private hospitals is exorbitant, making it unaffordable to most of the population.

Bhaskar Vittal, Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The current situation points to lack of growth in healthcare infrastructure spending by the government. The number of beds available in public healthcare facilities has not been able to keep with the population growth.

“While private sector investments in healthcare infrastructure was growing historically, the current COVID-19 pandemic may slowdown these investments in the near future. This is expected to have a significant impact on the medical devices market growth, especially the capital equipment business.”

According to GlobalData’s Medical Intelligence Database, the medical devices market in India was valued at about US$17bn in 2019. Cardiovascular devices, diagnostic imaging equipment, general surgery, hospital supplies, in vitro diagnostics, ophthalmic devices and orthopedic devices accounted for about 75% of the medical devices market in India in 2019.

Vittal concludes: “Healthcare spending by the government in recent years has been majorly focused on expanding the insurance coverage to most of the general population. Expanded insurance coverage mostly benefits private healthcare facilities and a good percentage of the private hospitals are currently not accepting COVID-19 patients. The pandemic has brought focus on the shortcomings of relying solely on expanding insurance coverage to meet healthcare needs of the general population without focusing on increasing and improving the healthcare facilities.”