Connect with us

Daily News

COVID-19 has not been an easy ride

India’s scramble to create more beds when COVID struck is not surprising, considering the fact that there are only 12 countries, which fare worse than India when it comes to bed availability.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 globally has prompted policymakers to evaluate the capacity of healthcare infrastructure. Many hard-hit localities have witnessed a large influx of severe cases that strained existing hospitals.

Medical infrastructure to ensure quality treatment of the admitted patients is being continuously augmented across the country. As a result of concerted efforts, the COVID-19 hospital infrastructure to treat COVID-19 is stronger today.

However, India’s scramble to create more beds when COVID struck is not surprising considering the fact that there are only 12 countries, which fare worse than India when it comes to bed availability. India has just five beds for 10,000 Indians. Recently released Human Development Report 2020 showed that out of 167 countries, India would rank 155th on bed availability.

The countries with fewer beds to population ratio than India included Uganda, Senegal, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Nepal, and Guatemala. Even Bangladesh is slightly better off than India with 8 beds per 10,000 population, though it has only 5.8 doctors per 10,000 population. Yet, Bangladesh has a higher life expectancy of 72.6 and lower infant mortality rate of 26.9 compared to India’s 32 deaths per 1000 live births.

In comparison, 76 countries have fewer doctors per 10,000 population than India, which includes several countries with vastly better health indices. For instance, Thailand and Vietnam have marginally fewer doctors than India, 8.1 and 8.3 doctors per 10,000, respectively, compared to 8.6 doctors per 10,000 population in India. But Vietnam has 32 beds per 10,000 people. The bed availability data for Thailand is not available in the HDR report, but World Bank data shows that it has about 20 beds per 10,000.

Countries in the very high human development category typically have about 25 to 50 doctors per 10,000 and 25-35 beds per 10,000. In the next category of high human development countries, the availability of beds ranges from 10 to 45 per 10,000 and the availability of doctors ranges from 15 to 40 per 10,000. There are several in this group with a lower doctor-population ratio than India, but none which have fewer beds per 10,000. Most of the countries in the medium human development group, to which India belongs, have fewer doctors per 10,000 population. But only two, Nepal (3) and Guatemala (4), have lower bed availability than India.

“Looking at what the industry has gone through over last year, it is natural that we all should strengthen our information technology platforms. Being able to connect to patients and providers anytime-anywhere has become the mantra. So we will be looking at strengthening ourselves in these areas. Of course, investments and developments will continue in other areas as deemed necessary.”

Dr Chandrika Kambam, Director – Clinical Services, HCG

The number of beds per 10,000 is used as an indicator of health infrastructure in general and the poor bed availability points to India’s failure to expand its health infrastructure in keeping with the growth in population. However, there is greater focus in India on creating more doctors, though doctors have often complained about the lack of infrastructure as the reason why many do not choose to work in underserved areas.

Considering the extremely poor availability of beds in India, it is little wonder that patients were struggling to find beds during the pandemic.

It has been a roller coaster ride for the medical supplies industry. With OPD facilities shut in hospitals for three or more months, there has been a drastic reduction in the uptake of medical devices, for new purchases and replacement equipment. Discretionary, elective procedures in hospitals have as yet not picked up pace. With a 50–70 percent drop in revenue, the government’s push to reserve hospital beds for COVID-19, along with the imposition of price caps on treatment, has not been an easy ride.

Indian market dynamics
The Indian hospital beds market was valued at USD 360 million in FY 2020 and is projected to witness a CAGR of around 9 percent during FY2021-2026, estimates TechSci Research. India hospital beds market is driven by growing healthcare industry and rising need to provide enhanced patient care.

Additionally, increasing number of beds in private hospitals equipped with the latest technologies, accessories, and customizations as per patient’s requirements are further expected to propel the market during forecast period. Besides, the sudden outbreak of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has drastically increased the demand for hospital beds. Furthermore, beds designed by the manufacturers for specific group of patients are expected to create lucrative opportunities for the market players over next few years.

The general beds segment is expected to dominate the market over the next 5 years. This can be ascribed to its cost-effectiveness coupled with growing prevalence of obesity coupled with sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits, especially among the working population. Based on technology, the market can be categorized into electrical, semi-electric, and manual. Manual beds segment is expected to continue its dominance during 2021-2026, followed by semi-electric and electrical beds segments.

Major players operating in Indian hospital beds market include Midmark India Pvt. Ltd., Arjo Huntleigh Healthcare India Private Ltd., Paramount Bed India Pvt Ltd., Stryker India Pvt Ltd., Hill-rom India Private Ltd., Godrej Interio, Medline Industries India Private Ltd., Geeta Surgicals, Invacare Corporation, Gita Mediquip Pvt. Ltd., and others.

Global market dynamics
The hospital beds market expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.8 percent from 2020 to reach USD 5.23 billion by 2027, predicts Meticulous Research. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital admissions across the world are growing at an alarming rate, which is fueling the demand for hospital beds. The pandemic has affected more than 200 countries, with around 82 million infected across the globe.

The number is growing at a rapid rate. Developed countries like the US, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy with standard healthcare infrastructure are the worst hit with high infection and mortality rates. The hospital bed US market is witnessing a scarcity of beds due to the increase in coronavirus cases, which have increased admissions in the region.

As the infection is highly contagious, patients need to be kept in isolation medical wards, which is increasing the demand for medical beds. As the destruction caused by the virus has been growing unabatedly since its eruption, healthcare facilities are using advanced medical facilities for critically ill patients to monitor vital signs, provide mobility and comfort to the patient population, which is expected to drive the demand for hospital beds.

The electrical hospital beds market is dominating and growing at a significant rate. Patients suffering from mobility challenges are increasingly using full-electrical hospital beds. Also, the availability of quick assistance with smart features is driving the demand in medical emergency rooms. While there is a surge in efforts to revamp the healthcare sector across the world, the development of increasing multi-specialty and private hospitals is aiding the demand for full-electric models as they are equipped with advanced easy handling features.

The industry will likely see more strategic partnerships and acquisitions as traditional market participants seek to innovate by tapping into the innovative energy of smaller, independent companies.

As hospital ICU beds are growing at a faster CAGR than non-intensive ones, the latter segment is likely to maintain its dominance in coming years. However, the tremendous growth opportunities for intensive care beds can be attributed to the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and patient admissions in critical care settings. With the rise in admissions in critical care settings/ICUs, healthcare facilities across the world are prioritizing to increase the number of ICU beds. This segment accounted for a 73 percent share in the growth of the hospital beds market in 2019. As the world is struggling to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus has already pushed medical centers capacity to the breaking point in many countries. The availability of ICU beds varies substantially across countries, ranging from less than 1 to greater than 30 per 100,000 people. The French market is one of the major end-users in the European intensive care market on account of the growing elderly population and the increasing target patient population. Also, the smart hospital beds market size is witnessing an increase in the growing popularity of smart homes.

The availability of skilled healthcare professionals with knowledge and expertise in handling specialized hospital beds is driving the demand in the hospital segment. In addition, the accessibility to advanced equipment in the intense care units and emergency departments, coupled with the increasing chronic disease prevalence globally, is also driving demand. The home healthcare segment is experiencing growth due to the increasing elderly population, and other patient community that opts for home healthcare settings. The increasing facility of free hospital beds for elderly population is boosting the demand for home healthcare systems, as these patients require regular medical assistance.

The market dominance of Europe is majorly due to the rising incidence of chronic diseases and the improvement in the healthcare infrastructure. The region is witnessing an increase in the average life expectancy rate, which is fueling the rise in the prevalence of various diseases, thereby contributing to the increase in hospital admissions. Owing to an increase in admissions, healthcare providers need a wide range of offerings ranging from ICU, general ward, home care, rehabilitation, and psychiatry beds. The North American region is majorly driven on account of the increase in the elderly population, moderate increase in the ICU admission, availability of advanced technology for remote patient monitoring, and advanced home care technology. China is the most prominent market in the APAC region. The country is the major revenue contributor due to the presence of a large pool of patients that use technologically advanced hospital beds. Factors like improvement in living standards, the prevalence of chronic ailments, and the growth in cardiovascular diseases in India and China are likely to boost hospital admissions.

The global hospital beds market is moderately fragmented. Large corporations dominate the industry; however, there are significant growth opportunities for new entrants. Several investigational and small MedTech companies are entering the industry with their innovative products and technology. The market offers tremendous growth opportunities for existing as well as emerging market players due to the presence of a large pool of patients with chronic diseases. These hospital bed companies have a wide geographical reach, diversified product portfolio, and a strong focus on innovation and research activities. Stryker hospital bed market share is likely to increase as the company has taken a few measures/initiatives to enhance the supply chain and increase production capabilities due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Outlook
The industry will likely see more strategic partnerships and acquisitions as traditional market participants seek to innovate by tapping into the innovative energy of smaller, independent companies. As a core component of healthcare, the bed is the perfect hub for many tasks, such as communicating to a hospital information system (HIS), performing data analysis as a component of a future neural network, and performing inductive charging of patient-worn and other sensors.

The large installed base of hospital and care-home customers provides the ideal opportunity for transitioning to a service model by offering beds and consumables as a product-as-a-service value proposition. As part of that, smart hospital beds will offer patient analytics to enable cost-effective wards to communicate with the HIS and electronic hospital records and alert professionals to the health status of patients and the level of care required.

The need for sensor-fed predictive analytics is overwhelming in all customer segments. Operators who can offer solutions, that which collect patient data and feed it into a predictive patient-management solution to optimize workflows and facilitate bed turnover times, will prevail. As the future bed becomes increasingly sophisticated, it will become an even more critical component of a digital services infrastructure that helps professionals run more cost-efficient operations without sacrificing health of patients.

Copyright © 2024 Medical Buyer

error: Content is protected !!