Hospital Market in India 2013

Indian hospital market faces a critical crunch in the number of hospital beds in comparison to the demand it faces. The hospital market in India has strong growth potential that is characterized by continual possibility of growth. Persistent growth in population necessitates the growth in both public as well as private hospital facilities to cater to population of varied economic standards residing in the country.
A gradual trend is being observed in terms of demand for quality healthcare service within the hospital market. This is not only because of changing nature of Indian patient population but also due to the booming medical tourism that India is currently catering to. As a result of these, the sector is attracting good amount of foreign investments or foreign hospital chains establishing business in the country. The Indian government is also undertaking numerous initiatives including tax incentives and budget allocations that would aid in investment inflow and betterment of the market.
Indian entrepreneurs are bringing in innovation within the hospital business by revolutionizing the approach towards healthcare delivery. Initiatives are being taken to penetrate smaller cities and towns where the private sector was hesitant to penetrate even a few years back. Primary and secondary care is being offered through specialty clinics or smaller hospitals specializing in few key areas to reduce their cost of operation yet increase revenue by carrying out more number of the selected few procedures. On the other hand, mobile hospitals and telemedicine is being popularized to reach patient population in rural and urban slum areas for delivering immediate healthcare services.
The Indian competitive landscape of the hospital market is primarily segmented into public and private. The public hospitals operating in the country provide service at a subsidized rate that enables the under privileged access reliable treatment. However, in the private segment hospital business in India is dominated by 11 key players that operate as a chain of hospitals, either regionally or nationally while other leading hospitals operate in the standalone format. With the penetration of private sector into the market, healthcare delivery is becoming intensively competitive among the private players which in turn are resulting in constant development in terms of service offered by them.