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Unlock Phase: THESE could be permanent changes in the healthcare system
Amid and post COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare system has been and will go a paradigm shift. Dr. Sunita Dube shares her views.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are getting a lot of wakeup calls and things are now in perspective on several issues including how important and necessary a well-functioning and smooth health care system we should have. The hap hazards in this sector cannot be taken lightly as it can and has been costing the lives of many. We asked Sunita Dube, a renowned MD Radiologist, Philanthropist, and Healthcare Entrepreneur on what could be some tectonic shifts that we can anticipate now and post COVID era.
She revealed how the experience of the past few weeks and months has demonstrated the need for major changes around the spectrum of treatment. Other shifts include designing and building facilities, educating healthcare staff, procurement and inventory control of critical care supplies and components for personal protective equipment ( PPE), and efficient care delivery arrangements and how it is reimbursed.
She also stated how many of these changes were underway before the pandemic was announced, and are now likely to intensify. New service paradigms, regional product delivery, and treatment settings and increased efficiency are now prime focuses in the way hospitals are designed.
Dr Dube shared her views on what could be semi-permanent or permanent changes in healthcare system
Emphasis on designs: More emphasis should be given to designs that optimize infection control ( e.g., more single rooms, versatile HVAC systems) as well as how intensive/critical care capability is incorporated into the hospital layout and user interface, with the potential to easily convert standard beds to intensive/ crucial care beds.
Rise of new markets for growth and diversification: Licensing telehealth services/solutions from third parties or creating their own offerings. Expand into community-based primary care programs targeted towards selected clinical disciplines.
Value chains: At times like this, the Covid-19 crisis has shown that global value chains (GVCs) are highly weak and inefficient. Massive attempts should be made to rework supply chains based on geostrategic parameters, rather than strictly economic ones. Regional value chains that follow for the production of strategic goods and services, based on geostrategic criteria.
Public health security: Public health protection had taken a backseat as per the interests of the countries. Definitely, that would change. It will henceforth outflank food and energy security and, if not surpass national security in the post-coronavirus world, estimates would be equal. It would be up to most states in the post-COVID-19 world to formulate some sort of a social safety net that includes not only the right to food, shelter, education but also health. The Covid-19 crisis has given us the social security problem for the disadvantaged and vulnerable.
ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Dr Sunita Dube OPENS UP on doctors' safety, necessary reforms and government hospitals
