Gerald Jaideep, CEO, Medvarsity Online shares insights on the new job opportunities in the coming future
According to Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) the healthcare industry is projected to reach approximately 8.5 trillion by 2022 with tremendous opportunities for all involved. In India alone each year the growth rates are above 15 per cent CAGR. Additionally, the growth for medical and health service managers is expected to rise by 17 per cent gradually till 2024, while the other occupations are expected to rise by approximately 6 per cent.
The healthcare industry is going through a growth phase with regards to the job market. This growth can be looked at differently based on the urban or rural market. With over 15000 hospitals enrolled as part of the Ayushman Bharat initiative in the rural areas and tier 3 cities, the demand for qualified and skilled healthcare professionals is increasing.
State governments across the country are working towards providing incentives to specialists/doctors who are willing to provide services to rural areas under the AB-PMJAY programme. Additionally, investments are being made to improve the quality of infrastructure and professionals available for managing these centres at rural and primary health centres. With the introduction of courses to certify Ayush doctors in modern medicine, the volume of practicing professionals is likely to go up.
On the other hand, in the urban context, there is rapid consolidation taking place in the private healthcare market. Increased corporatisation of the healthcare industry is leading to high demand for management professionals, HR professionals, data scientists, technologists and others. Highly skilled doctors are also in demand in tertiary care hospitals with larger number of patients choosing to seek out specialised care as their first consultation with doctors.
Areas that will attract more talent
The fields of Emergency Medicine (EM), diabetes, cardiology and MBA in hospital and healthcare management will have a great demand of skilled professionals in the years ahead. Facts like India emerging as the diabetes capital of the world with 73-million diabetic patients, cardiovascular diseases being the number one reason for mortality and only a hundred MD-Emergency medicine seats available is increasing the need for skilled resources .
Additionally, opportunities are emerging for managers and administrators across the spectrum of healthcare services such as small and large clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, and medical colleges, apart from allied industries such as health insurance, medical KPOs, pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
Education needed to support such jobs
The degrees that are required to make a career in these growing areas range from a graduation to an MBBS graduate, depending on the course and its level of advancement. Courses such as emergency medicine and cardiology requires an eligibility of being an MBBS graduate, whereas management in healthcare and nutrition based courses requires a student to be a normal graduate. Additionally, some of the courses are sectioned into levels, where each level has a different eligibility. For example our masterclass in diabetes is divided into three levels, where level one is open to all graduates in medicine, dentistry and nursing and level three only to MBBS graduates.
Freshly minted MBBS graduates with just one-year of internship behind them may not be very well equipped to take on the industry needs and would require specialised training to handle the clinical or non clinical responsibilities effectively in certain specialities. This is because India is seeing an increase in the number of healthcare concerns and a highly limited number of specialists available.
Organisations to be future ready
While recruiting the right kind of talent, healthcare organisations needs to have a strategic vision aligned to its goals. We are living in an era of technology where everything is interconnected over the intangible platform. An organisation should start from applying the right technology for the recruitment and create an effective pipeline of candidates. Parallely, a company should always keep in mind to consistently add value within the organisation which can increase the value proposition. Employee satisfaction needs to be kept in mind and to sustain that a continued professional development should also be taken into consideration. Also, right branding plays a big part in showcasing the image of the organisation to the stakeholders and employees.