24 lakh hospital beds necessary
Property Consultant Knight Frank reveals
There is a shortage of over 200 crore sft healthcare space in India. To achieve the target of three hospital beds for every 1000 population, there is a need to acquire over 24 lakh hospital beds to give fillip to the health real estate market, according to Property Consultants Knight Frank and Berkadia of the USA.
The existing bed strength of 70,000 in hospitals is hardly sufficient to cater to the hospital needs of a population of 142 crore. To provide three hospital beds for every 1000 people, the health care space requirement would be 200 crore sft. Currently, there are only 1.3 beds for every 1000 people in the country. To meet the hospital bed needs of the people, an additional 24 lakh beds should be provided.
The ratio of population to hospital beds is low in the face of a growing population. Therefore, the health care amenities should be improved in the country, remarks Sisir Baijal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Knight Frank consultants. He opined that the existing real estate capacity should double to provide health care amenities in tune with the growing needs of the population. He put the health care market in the country in 2022 at $ 372 billion, registering a five-fold increase with the size of the market that had prevailed in 2012. The annual growth of the market was put at 18%.
