The healthcare industry all over the world is facing bigger problems than ever before with budget constraints and an ever ageing population.
Mortality rates are on the increase and mistakes being made every day, causing serious harm or even death to some patients. According to the BBC the pharmaceutical companies, despite being one of the most profitable, are failing the medical industry with their lack of service and innovation. A thorough shake up of their practice is imminent but we are at crisis point – so what are the main issues?
Costs
The biggest problem facing the medical industry is the rising costs. It’s not just the patient care that is crippling but operating costs such as energy and day to day supply of goods. Technological research into breakthrough medicine and purchasing new equipment is costing millions.
Looking at the American medical industry there is an approval process called the FDA 510k clearance process which requires all drug and equipment manufacturers to go through a pre-approval route to get authorisation to sell medical devices. Not only is this process lengthy, but costly too which only passes on the costs to the medical providers themselves. There are ways around this by fast tracking the process with organisations such as www.fdathirdpartyreview.com who can potentially reduce time to market by about 3 months.
Ageing Populations
The medical sector was originally set up to treat diseases but with today’s population of living longer, care over extended periods and the treatment of life long conditions that affect the elderly are more important than ever.
Wasted Spend
Money is being spent on needless medical interventions such as allowing too many elective caesarean sections carried out earlier than necessary on unborn babies. This, potentially can cause a lot of harm to both mother and baby and completely unnecessary in the majority of cases.
Lifestyle of Patients
A big problem for many health service providers. Lack of exercise, drinking and eating too much as well as smoking takes its toll on a depleted budget. Not only are we seeing this in adults but children too.
Expectations
As a population our expectations have grown and we now expect care rather than appreciate it and forget that vaccinations and tests all come as part of the already drained resources of the medical industry today.