‘To reach the levels of other developing countries, India should aim to increase its bed density from 0.86 to 2 per 1000 population by 2025. To achieve this, it would need to add 17.5 lac beds with an estimated investment of 70,000 crores by 2025,’ according to a joint study done by Ficci and consultancy firm Ernst & Young.

The study says, there has been a 66 per cent rise in reported ailments in a period between 1995-96 and 2004-05, while the number of beds available per thousand population has decreased from 0.93 to 0.86 during the same period. The condition is even worst in case of rural areas as statistic reveal that while rural India bears three-fourth of the ailment burden, it has only one-ninth of the total number of beds and has only one-fourth of the healthcare resources, the study says. It also suggested that an improvement in government-owned hospitals would increase the availability of beds by 25 per cent.

‘The public sector has 62 per cent of the total number of beds in the country, with an estimated bed occupancy rate of 72 per cent and average length of stay of 10 days, while in private hospitals the average length of stay is around 7.5 days. By reducing average length of stay to 7.5 days in government hospitals, 25 per cent capacity can be made available across the public health system,’ the study says.

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