CIPACA, an organisation that has been pioneering in establishment and management of state-of-the-art ICUs in rural hospitals and healthcare institutions, says it will expand in to many states this year as it has been seeing surge in number of enquiries from healthcare institutions across the country for setting up emergency care facilities.
While most developed countries such as USA, UK & Singapore have more than 10 ICU (Intensive care unit) beds for 1 lakh population, while India has only 2.5 ICU beds and about 80 of these beds in India are located in Metropolitan cities only. But, 70 per cent of the Indian population lives in rural areas. Thus, a huge gap exists between primary and tertiary-level ICU services in small towns and rural areas.
While small towns and rural areas are emerging as next growth centres, hospitals in these locations have also been attempting to catch up with big hospitals in cities in providing critical care.
Thanks to new age healthcare firms such as CIPACA, emergency care has seen a disruptive model and that has helped the rural hospitals to transform into 24/7 emergency care hospitals.
The Chennai-headquartered CIPACA has set up ICU operations in more than dozen hospitals across Southern and Eastern region and has been managing the emergency care operations through a viable concept. CIPACA has already been well recognised as the ‘Best rural ICU care provider’ through its services across regions.
“Though governments have been boosting investment in public health care, the requirements far outstrip the demand. Also, investments in augmenting healthcare infrastructure in rural areas do not happen in a big way due to lack of volumes and low returns on investment. But we at CIPACA have cracked this and have been helping hospitals in rural areas to run emergency & ICU operations that not only save thousands of people but also ensure returns on investment, said Dr Raja Amarnath, Managing Director of CIPACA.
CIPACA’s objective is also to provide world-class healthcare at an affordable price. “Our ICU operations have helped save more than 1 lakh lives every year. We are a different organization compared to other healthcare firms. We are working towards increasing the number of rural ICU beds, not chasing any profit number,” says Dr Raja Amarnath.
While CIPACA has established a name for itself in rural ICU care, it has been witnessing an increase in enquiries from rural hospitals on the possibility of setting up emergency care operations. COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated the need to set up ICU operations in hospitals across small towns.
CIPACA is one of the very few organizations that work with the goal of complementing the government initiatives in addressing gaps in rural ICU care.