NAME-ANWESH PRADHAN

ROLLNO-UR20014

Case study of COVID-19: how the sudden disruption will set the way for
the future of India’s health infrastructure at the micro and macro level.

1. Introduction to COVID-19
On 31 December 2019, a cluster of cases of unknown cause, in the city of Wuhan, China,
was reported to the World Health Organisation. In January 2020, the new virus was
identified, named the 2019 novel coronavirus. This novel coronavirus was named
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) by WHO in February 2020. On 11th march 2020
the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. As of 10thJune 2020 over 19,936,547 cases
in 188 countries with a total of over 732,467 fatalities and in India 44,386 deaths out of
2,215,074 cases. The common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough.
Some patients may have aches and pains, runny nose, sore throat. These symptoms are
usually mild and begin gradually. People with good immune system become infected but
don’t develop any symptoms and don't feel unwell. Most people recover from the disease
without needing special treatment. Older people, and those with medical problems like high
blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes are more vulnerable.

2. How COVID-19 is affecting India’s economy and healthcare system

The economic impact of COVID-19 is very worrying. Economies of about 100 plus countries
have been destroyed. Hospitality, entertainment, aviation etc have seen a major negative
impact. Various sports events such as IPL and Olympics have been postponed. Schools and
colleges have been closed. India facing a huge decline in government revenues and growth of
the income as the coronavirus hits economic activity of the country. Factories, Restaurants,
Pubs, Markets, Flights, Super Markets, Malls, Universities and Colleges etc. were shut down.
People were not even going to buy the daily essentials and these all were somewhere
impacting the economy of the country.  India's growth in the fourth quarter of 2020 went
down to 3.1% according to the Ministry of Statistics.
In the 2019 Global Health Security Index, which measures pandemic preparedness for
countries based on their ability to handle the crisis, India ranked 57, US at 1, UK at 2, Brazil
at 22, China at 51 and Italy at 31, suggesting it is more vulnerable to pandemic. India’s low
investment in the health sector, dedicating only 1.3% of its GDP. It contrasts with other
developing countries such as Brazil, which spends 7.5% of its annual GDP on health, Bhutan
3.6%, and Bangladesh 2.2%. Among developed nations, South Korea has kept its healthcare
expenditure at 8.1%, Japan 10.9%, and the US at 8.5% of their annual GDP.

Health infrastructure is falling at this stage of the pandemic because of mismanagement,

unprofessional planning, greed of private institutions and unjustified fear. Health delivery in
India is concentrated in urban and more in metro cities. Majority of private hospitals in rural
areas have either stopped giving services for covid-19 patients or are extorting huge money.

India has a severe shortage of healthcare workers. According to the Health Ministry data
released in October last year, there is one doctor for every 11,082 people, which is more than

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 NAME-ANWESH PRADHAN
ROLLNO-UR20014

10 times the doctor-patient ratio. The WHO mandates that the doctor to population ratio
should be 1:1,000, while India had a 1:1,404 ratio as of February 2020.In rural areas, this
doctor-patient ratio is as low as 1:10,926 doctors as per National Health Profile 2019. In rural
India has 3.2 government hospital bed per 10,000 people. The healthcare system in rural
India faces shortage of medical professionals. The healthcare system is not adequate to
contain COVID-19 in rural areas especially in many northern Indian states.

According to data from the National Health Profile 2019, there are 7,13,986 total government
hospital beds available in India. 0.55 beds per 1000 population. The availability of beds for
elderly population in India is 5.18 beds per 1000 population. Since 2005 most of the
healthcare capacity has been added in the private sector or in partnership with the private
sector. The private sector consists of 58% of the hospitals in the country, 29% of beds in
hospitals, and 81% of doctors.

3. Solutions which government may use in future

• Government may invest more % of its GDP in healthcare system.

• Reconfiguration of infrastructure in micro and macro level.

• New well design hospitals will construct to a high standard, specifically flexibility of usage
of space to keep services adaptable and revenue cost down.

Healthcare system and staff must support effective health promotion, prevention and selfcare
of the whole population.

. Hospitals will have a key role in helping disadvantaged population groups, such as people
below poverty line, homeless, the abused and addicts, who do not get primary care.

. Every micro and macro level hospitals will increase its ward beds, ICU beds, ventilators and
equipment for any situation.

. As the doctor-patient and staff-patient ratio is very low, number of staff and doctors will
increase.

. Availability of basic equipment in micro hospitals for clinical services.

4. Conclusion

Thus, multiple infrastructure systems, processes and personnel arrangements are key to the
future hospitals aim and objectives, underpinning a new approach to healthcare that will
ensure efficiency, cost reduction, sustainability and most importantly improved patient care.

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5. References
Prachi Singh, Shamika Ravi and Sikkim Chakraborty www.brookings.edu
Neetu Chandra Sharma www.livemint.com
Sumi Sukanya Dutta www.newindiaexpress.com
Surbhi Bhatia, Sneha Alexander www.livemint.com
Sharad Tyagi www.thehindubusinessline.com