Millions Of Employees In Healthcare Sector Are At Risk Of Losing Jobs

There is no visible silver lining in the job market yet. With government extending price controls over the medical devices and proposing generic prescriptions, healthcare industry foresee millions of employees losing jobs in the next two years.  

Government’s drug and medical device price watchdog has curbed prices of stents in February. The move has slashed the prices of cardiac stents by about 80%, squeezing the extra ordinary margins made by device makers. “With prices going down by 80%, the revenues of device makers will go down by atleast 50%. This clearly indicates that they need to reduce the current headcount,” Probir Das, board member of Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI).  

Also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on getting doctors to prescribe medicines using their generic names if came into life will force pharmaceutical giants to hand over pink slips to their medical representatives. “Healthcare companies employ about 15 to 20 lakh MRs. As the profession will become irrelevant, there can be massive job losses,” Das said.

The healthcare sector, as per MTaI, employs over 60 lakh people in India. Medical devices sector is simmering with discontent over several policies announced by government recently. The body has asked for applying differential pricing for drug-eluting stents by classifying them on the basis of technology used.

"The government needs to recognise that medical technology sector is capital intensive with a long gestation period requiring continual infusion of technology and accordingly take a nuanced approach in its policy-making mechanisms," Pavan Choudary, director general at MTaI said. “However, the steps should be viable for industry as well.”