Micro-hospitals new shield against rising NCDs: Experts

As India’s healthcare system buckles under a noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) epidemic, experts advocated setting up of “micro-hospitals” which they claimed can curb India’s deaths due to NCDs by replacing fragmented tertiary models with specialist-led coordinated care and reduced wait times.

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WHO data reveals that NCDs account for an estimated 63 per cent of all deaths in India, they said. Hospital bed density lags at just 0.55 per 1,000 population ~ far below the WHO’s 3 per 1,000 benchmarks ~ leading to overcrowded facilities, long wait times, and variability in care quality. Experts said that despite India’s world-class technology and infrastructure, the healthcare system is marred by a massive “middle-layer gap” (micro-hospitals) between primary clinics and overcrowded 500-bed hospitals, leading to fragmen