Private healthcare needs a new social contract

Any serious discussion about India's health system must begin by acknowledging an uncomfortable truth: we cannot deliver healthcare to 1.4 billion people without the private sector.

Private providers handle roughly 60 per cent of all hospitalisations and 70 per cent of outpatient care. In urban centres, nearly two-thirds of inpatient treatment occurs in private facilities. At the top end, corporate hospitals deliver sophisticated tertiary and quaternary care, using technology and specialised skills that the public system still struggles to provide at scale. These



institutions have also made India a global destination for medical tourism, attracting 6.4 lakh foreign patients in 2024 for cardiac, orthopaedic and specialised surgeries, more than triple the number in 2020.

Private enterprise has injected capital, management expertise and innovation into Indian healthcare. Crucially, hospital chains are now expanding beyond metropolitan hubs into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, a geographic footprint India desperately needs.

Yet despite these contributions, private healthcare faces a deepening crisis of trust.