We Must Bring Down Some Cost Of Healthcare But Pay Workers What They Deserve: Dr Sangita Reddy

On the rising medical inflation in India which reports say is approximately at 14 per cent presently and is also the highest in Southeast Asia, Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint MD, Apollo Hospitals said while defending the Indian healthcare costs that the high-quality healthcare in India is available at one-tenth or one-sixth of the global prices and its prices are not high in many areas. 

On being asked about the reports in the media of rising costs of routine surgeries and room rents Dr Reddy in an interaction with BW Healthcare World stated, “They are those areas where it's an unplanned, uncontrolled or undisclosed healthcare of episodic instances which are being quoted where the cost of care is high.” 

She also contended that to avail of high-end healthcare, insurance is the only way forward and out-of-pocket is not the answer. “Direct payment is not an answer. Appropriate insurance is the only way that we can enable people to access high-end healthcare, another important point is that we must all continue the quest towards reducing the cost of care and that is primarily input cost,” Dr Reddy said.  

Dr Reddy further said that the healthcare industry is not availing any special incentives, it pays the same tax and its electricity is charged at the same price. “Many sectors including the IT sector have received many incentives over the years and these are incentives that do not come to healthcare. Therefore, if healthcare providers have to invest to create high quality or to create infrastructure there is a need for incentives, there is a need to bring down the input cost, not only the cost of capital but also of procuring high-end machines,” she explained. Dr Reddy added that to further aid this cause manufacturing in India of both machines and consumables will be important.

She pointed out that the cost of primary healthcare providers subsuming the nurses, junior doctors, and health technicians is going to go up. “We are competing with global players. We pay a nurse on average 25-35 thousand rupees but if they go abroad they are going to earn more than a lakh of rupees, I want to keep our nurses here, I want to be able to pay them 75-80 thousand rupees. So we must innovate methods of access, we must bring down some costs of healthcare but pay the healthcare worker what they deserve,” Dr Reddy stated. 

Technology At Apollo Hospitals

Speaking on what Apollo Hospitals is planning to do with technology in times to come Dr Reddy shared that “Apollo is committed to using technology in every area, whether it's greater patient safety, remote patient monitoring using patches to monitor patients at home, or using artificial intelligence to use the data and derive clinical insights and embed them into the standards of care.”

She added that there is tremendous potential in high-end machines and with the help of technology the CT scans today are getting more powerful,  “We are integrating multi-modality imaging, then there is testing like genomics so there's a range of diagnostics that are emerging and its a whole realm and Apollo will use every technology possible to impact the patient and enhance the quality of care and to bring better care within the reach of everyone,” Dr Reddy delineated.