TrendMILL With the
proliferation of corporate hospitals, job opportunities in the
healthcare sector
THE growing corporate presence in healthcare, coupled with several other factors, has injected a new momentum into this sector. Ratan Jalan, CEO, Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited, outlines the future prospects in this field: Why is there a sudden boom in the Indian healthcare industry? Where does it rank in comparison to other sectors? There has not been such a radical increase in healthcare expenditure, as is often perceived. With the increased presence of corporate hospitals, this sector has gained a lot in terms of visibility and to a large extent, desirability both by potential investors as well as career aspirants. While healthcare ranks higher than education, retail banking, IT or telecommunication in terms of expenditure as a percentage of the GDP, there is still a lot of scope for the healthcare sector to evolve and mature. Thrust on professionalism and accountability in the healthcare sector is vitally important for its growth. How many jobs is this sector generating at present and what are the future prospects? Healthcare, across the world, is considered to be the largest employer. Healthcare today offers direct employment to over 4 million people, which is expected to go up to almost 7 million by 2012. And the jobs are not just restricted to doctors and nurses. This sector would require a large number of paramedical staff, and more importantly a large number of managers with expertise across different functions.
Since the choice in terms of people with prior experience in healthcare may be limited, one would look at other service industries. Ability to adapt as well as leverage existing learning would be some of the key assets. Apart from doctors and nurses, opportunities are increasing for paramedics, lab technicians, hospital administrators, medical representatives and pharmacists. Is this profession both lucrative and challenging? For people driven by opportunities to 'create', healthcare will perhaps offer highest opportunities in terms of challenges and complexity of job contents. The way it happened in financial services or retailing in the last few years, healthcare will require a vast amount of developmental work in creation of systems, processes, framework for overall business strategy. There isn't much to learn from the past and even less to 'maintain'! The challenges are going to be more in terms of applying and adapting knowledge from other service sectors and also from the West. It would also require strategies for quick recoveries in case of mistakes. Increased presence of private sector and need to source people from other service industries will result in more lucrative opportunities. Increasing globalisation will make it even more attractive. — TNS
|
||||
|
|
What kind of skill sets
will be needed for professionals in this sector?
