Additional FSI for hospitals will bring down healthcare cost in Tamil Nadu | INRnews
Dr Reddy said that the increasing land prices in the State means that the land cost constitutes about 40-50% of a hospital project and with low FSI, hospitals are not able to increase beds in the same premises. They are not able to keep the healthcare cost at affordable level, when they acquire land to increase the number of beds. He added that at present, there is only one bed for 1,100 people in Tamil Nadu, whereas the World Health Organisation recommends at least 1:500 ratio. The additional FSI of 5, as in Mumbai, would increase the number of hospital beds by approximately 20-30 % . FSI in Delhi and Karnataka is 3, as compared to just 1.5 in Tamil Nadu.
Dr Reddy said that FSI should be same across the State to benefit especially the small 20-bed hospitals - "the frontline brigades in the battlefield for saving lives of people in need of emergency treatment". These small hospitals constitute 80% of the total healthcare services provided in the State.
At national level, India needs to double its bed strength of 7 lakhs to meet the WHO recommendation of 1 bed for 500 people. As the country adds 25 million children every year, India needs to invest Rs. 80,000 crore to create one lakh additional beds every year for the next 20 years, he said. In comparison, Japan has one bed for 90 people, while Russia and Western nations have one bed for 110 and 250 people respectively. "We cannot import healthcare like cement or steel. Hence, we have to improve our healthcare infrastructure on war footing," Dr Reddy said.
The Government should provide healthcare sector incentives that are equal to those provided to the IT sector, as healthcare has the potential to create employment opportunities five to ten times more than what the IT industry can do. The healthcare sector has the potential to increase its direct employment from 4 million to 30 million and generate an equal number of indirect employment opportunities. Healthcare is also a major foreign exchange earner with the inevitable growth of medical tourism. "In addition to that, over 10% of Indian medical professionals - including paramedical staff, who are working abroad, send home about 60% of their earnings," Dr Reddy pointed out.
Dr Reddy said that there is acute manpower shortage in the people-intensive healthcare industry. Tamil Nadu produces 2000 doctors a year and for every doctor, there is a need for 5 para medical staff - the State alone needs to produce 10,000 nurses per year. India has about 7 lakh doctors and 1.1 million nurses but the country needs at least 17 lakh doctors and 37 lakh paramedical staffs to meet the local demand. Manufacturing sector continues to downsize but hospitals world over continue to generate more employment. At US$ 3 trillion, it is one of the largest sectors of world economy.
Dr Reddy urged other States to follow the healthcare model of Andhra Pradesh, which intends to cover 5 crore people - over 80% of its population - with its new universal healthcare scheme, Arogya Sree. AP too has a very liberal FSI to increase its healthcare infrastructure.
By INRnews Correspondent