Setting up a medical hospital in India is not as easy as it sounds, but we are here to give you some pointers to consider before taking the plunge.

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Health care is the basic need and right of every citizen of our country. Hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, medical camps etc form the platform for this healthcare delivery, assisted by doctors, nurses and other medical staff. Unfortunately, India has a huge and growing population, but a poor number of hospitals. India has one hospital bed for 879 people. This is far below the world average of 30 hospitals per 10,000 population.  According to the WHO, India needs 80,000 more hospital beds every year to meet the demands of its growing population. This highlights the need for more hospitals to be built at a faster pace.

Here, we consider the necessary steps required to set up hospitals in India. Hospitals can primarily be of two types- government or private. Further, they can be general, speciality or multispecialty hospitals. Following are the pointers one needs to keep in mind and set in place for setting up a private hospital in India:

1. Location of the hospital

This has to be chosen well, because if there are already some hospitals in the locality, then it will be difficult to pool in patients. Also, the hospital needs to be set up in an area which has good transportation facility or is close to a railway station. Considering the cost of real estate, a huge financial investment is required.

2. Facilities your hospital offers

One has to be sure what set-up is planned and what infrastructure is required. A pediatric, orthopedic, gynecologic, oncology, pathology, imaging, etc facility in the hospital all require different facilities.

3. Permits for your hospital

A. Land and construction

Land allotted for agriculture cannot be used. To start building the hospital wing, several permissions from local authorities need to be taken. Numerous documents need to be approved, like land deed, architect’s plan, etc.

An occupation certificate is obtained after clearing all formalities.

B. Electricity and water

As per the requirements of the hospital, permission has to be taken from the local governing body to obtain electric meters and water supply. Water requirement has to be calculated, which for any setup is approx 100 litres per day.

C. Sewage

Proper disposal of waste requires a well planned sewage and drainage system, which is done after permission is sought from the local board.

D. Biomedical waste

This is very vital aspect and permission of Municipal Corporation is required for installing incinerators required to dispose of medical waste and body parts.

E. Fire and Health Licence

A Fire licence is necessary to prove that the hospital will not cause any damage or loss of life and needs to be procured from the local municipal council.  Procuring a health licence is vital to provide health care to the patients.

4. Planning your hospital infrastructure

Take care of all these:

  1. Doctors, their qualifications and registration numbers recorded
  2. Nurses and working shifts discussed and set
  3. Medical equipment and instruments purchased
  4. Computers and other hardware devices set up
  5. Engineers and staff required for maintenance, plumbing, medical gas pipelines, air conditioning, etc. set

Multiple medical laws and ethics must be followed at every step. A set of guide lines and eligibility criteria have been put forth by our government for hospitals, which provide services to central government health scheme beneficiaries.

A tremendous amount of planning, large finances, approvals, certifications, licences and guide lines need to be followed while setting up a hospital in India. It might be well worth it at the end, but needs ample time and mammoth effort to pool together the resources in place.

Contributed by Dr. Rachita Narsaria

References:

  1. Avantika Ghosh. Healthcare woes :India has got 1 govt hospital bed for 879 people. New Delhi, Sat Aug 24 2013, 12:26 hrs.
  2. Cygnus research. Pre-feasiblity report on Speciality and Multi- Speciality hospitals in India. July 2009.Region India. 205 pages.ID:1071214.
  3. Research Foundation of Hospital and healthcare administration. http://www.rfhha.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=67
  4. Central Government of India. Central Government Health Scheme, Nirman Bhavan. New Delhi. http://msotransparent.nic.in/writereaddata/cghsdata/mainlinkfile/File576.pdf