What are the new developments and latest innovations at Periclave?
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| Zoru Bathena |
We have standardised the entire process of manufacturing over the last 65 years and already have a good portfolio of products to serve the unique needs of not only small hospital setups but also huge medical institutions, pharma industries, medical colleges and research institutes, etc. We, at Periclave, are very proud to give full range of CSSD, biomedical waste equipment, and laundry equipment as per the national and international norms.
Our products are designed to give continuous performance in the Indian environmental conditions which our foreign competitors are unable to provide. We are using high speed ethernet communication based PLC for process control of our CSSD and laundry equipment which is the best available technology. Because of this the process control is at a higher speed resulting in better performance from the equipment. This technology also helps in saving time and utility.
For manual machines, there is a long standing issue all over India of sterilisation cycle documentation. For this we have developed special logger which can transfer sterilisation cycle data to a pendrive or a computer, for storage and monitoring. With this technology the hospital administrators can easily supervise the sterilisation operation, thus eliminating any human errors, which was not practically possible for manual machines previously.
How aware are Indian hospitals about bio medical waste management? How can this stream evolve?
Although, there is an increased global awareness among health professionals about the hazards of bio medical waste and also appropriate management techniques are available, but the level of awareness in India is found to be unsatisfactory. It is estimated that annually about 0.33 million tonne of hospital waste is generated in India and, the waste generation rate ranges from 0.5 to 2.0 kg per bed per day. Wherever, generated, a safe and reliable method for handling of biomedical waste is essential. Effective management of biomedical waste is not only a legal necessity but also a social responsibility.
Though legal provisions [Biomedical Waste (management and handling) Rules 1998] exist to mitigate the impact of hazardous and infectious hospital waste on the community, still these provisions are yet to be fully implemented and need to be updated.
In order to evolve this stream, adequate knowledge about the health hazard of hospital waste, proper technique and methods of handling the waste, and practice of safety measures can go a long way towards the safe disposal of hazardous hospital waste and protect the community from various adverse effects of the hazardous waste.
Also we feel that choice of bio medical waste management equipment and infection control equipment should not be ‘price centric’ but ‘performance centric’. For this, specific standardisation norms like using horizontal double door autoclaves in place of vertical autoclaves, should be strictly adhered to in order to achieve optimum sterilisation and complete infection control. Moreover the Rule 1998 made over a decade back, only talks about autoclaves, but if they specify double door autoclaves, then the waste treatment will be more effective, as in a single door autoclave the treated waste is again unloaded in the area where contaminated waste is kept, because of which re-contamination of the biomedical waste is possible. However, if double door autoclaves are used then the treated waste is unloaded in a clean area because of which re-contamination of the waste is not possible. For this the State Pollution Control Board and the Central Pollution Control Board should take initiative involving the experts from the environmental field, hospitals and biomedical waste equipment manufacturing companies to upgrade the norms of treatment and handling of bio medical waste.
What is Periclave’s USP?
Customers buy from us because of a distinct technological advantage we bring to the table over our competitors. This is reflected by our exhaustive customer list on all India basis. We have supplied equipments to almost each corner of the country. We give our customers 100 per cent satisfaction because, we have over 100 employees and each employee is having over a decade of experience in handling their departments. Further, on all India basis we have over 25 experienced engineers to provide after sales support, some of whom have expertise of over 40 years in this field. We guarantee availability of all spares for the equipment sold by us for at least 10 years. We always aim to communicate effectively with our customers and if need arises, we are definitely open to introducing custom made equipment in the market-based on individual customer requirements.
How do you meet stringent quality standards for your sterilisation products?
Periclave is an ISO 9001-2008 certified company, because of which we are able to give repeatable performance continuously, due to documentation procedure, monitoring and audits by certified auditors. The products are CE certified, which shows that our product quality is not only acceptable in India, but also throughout the world. We regularly develop technologies to meet stringent quality standards which not only help us to maintain quality standards but also help our customers to comply with any validation or audit requirement which has become a must for meeting NABH and JCI norms. These technologies are also supported by documents like design qualification (DQ), factory acceptance test (FAT), installation qualification (IQ), operation qualification (OQ) and performance qualification (PQ).
What challenges do you foresee for your growth in the Indian market? How are you addressing it?
The challenge would be penetration into tier II and III cities and cost competition from unorganised and substandard equipment manufacturers. High excise duty adds to challenge in this highly price conscious market which has a very large potential.
What are the market opportunities for business growth in India?
India is one of the largest emerging medical equipment markets in the world.The Indian healthcare industry is estimated at $35 billion and is expected to reach over $75 billion by 2013. The medical equipment market is growing at a rate of 15 per cent and the demand for equipment is expected to reach $5 billion by 2013. The medical infrastructure in India is far from adequate. Demand, for hospitals and beds, far surpasses availability. The World Health Organization projected that India needs to create at least 80,000 hospital beds per year for the next five years to meet the expanding local demand. In the medical equipment segment, competition is from the imports from European companies and Japan. The growing demand for quality healthcare and the absence of matching delivery mechanisms pose a challenge and certainly a great opportunity.
How do you plan to emerge as a dominant player in your segment?
At Periclave, we only strive for customer satisfaction using the best available technologies and manpower. The promptness in attending to customer needs and availability of the spare parts and cost of after sales services are critical success factors for any vendor and we surpass our competitors with flying colours. Our goal is to utilise the results of intensive dialogue with our customers to further develop our products and to incorporate relevant innovations so that we set our products as a benchmark on international platform.
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