THE HOSPITAL COMES HOME

With home healthcare offering everything from dialysis and eICUs to palliative care for cancer patients and rehabilitation services for stroke survivors, Indians are learning to move from hospital care to 'anywhere-care'

- BY SONALI ACHARJEE / Photograph by BANDEEP SINGH

A PLEASANT REVOLUTION IS TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE IN INDIA. For a long time, home care was limited to end-of-life or palliative care, geriatric nursing and physiotherapy. All diagnostic, emergency and critical care functions happened in hospitals. Now, in a massive shift, the comfortable confines of a home are taking centre stage. They call it home healthcare or, simply, home-care. Today, complex clinical profiles can be managed at home, something deemed impossible a decade back. This includes looking after those in coma, stroke survivors and dementia patients. Other than the usual barrage of blood/ urine tests, a wide range of diagnostic procedures like x-rays, ultrasounds, clectrocardiograms (ECGs) and some biopsies can be done at home by trained professionals. Not just this, use of ventilators, dialysis units and setting up of e-ICUs (electronic intensive care units) have expanded the range of home healthcare. Doctors say it speeds up complex recoveries, including from organ transplants, cancer care and major surgeries. Furthermore, it saves money, reduces congestion in hospitals and is considered safer. Sensing a shift, major players like Apollo and Max hospitals have introduced homecare services under Apollo Home and MAX@Home, respectively, while other players like Portea Medical and Healtheare at Home (HCAH) contribute to a burgeoning market worth thousands of crores. Taking note, the government is not far behind.