The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every single member of the healthcare community, both personally and professionally – and at every level of the supply chain, from manufacture to bedside care.
For those delivering healthcare on the ground it has been a highly challenging time. Through our Voice of the Healthcare Industry Market Outlook 2021 survey we asked healthcare organisations worldwide to tell us about what the biggest barrier was to carrying out their job effectively.
The highest number of respondents from clinics, medical practices, public hospitals, and private hospitals stated that this remains to be a lack of access to new technologies and medical equipment. At 23%, this issue has become even more of a challenge since December 2019, with an increase from 19%.
There has been minimal change for other barriers including work overload, staff shortage, poor organisational structure, insufficient training and education and lack of time with patients. Practitioners are, however, feeling more valued in 2021 (5% down from 10%).
The biggest challenge faced by public and private medical practices as an organisation remains obtaining funding for new technologies, although this has declined slightly from 17% in 2019 to 14% in 2021.
Operational efficiency has become more of a challenge (14% up from 11%), as has effectively implementing new technologies (12% up from 9%). Other challenges have all seen very little change, although fewer respondents identified poorly trained staff as their biggest challenge (9% down from 12%).
Challenges facing the non-profit sector
The main challenges facing charities, non-profit organisations and NGOs remains a lack of funding. There was no change in the proportion of respondents for this issue since December 2019, but fewer respondents reported on limited capacity (24% down from 27%), poor governance and networking (16% down from 19%) politicisation of NGOs (13% down from 19%), lack of long-term engagement (13% down from 19%) or community engagement (13% down from 18%).
About the report
The Voice of the Healthcare Industry Market Outlook 2021 survey was designed by Informa Markets to understand the impact that the pandemic has had on four key areas of the industry: manufacturers and agents, dealers and distributors; clinics and medical practices; private hospitals and public hospitals; government and health regulators; and charities, non-profits and NGOs.
Through GRS Research & Strategy Middle East we asked 1,600 respondents worldwide about the financial and operational impact of the events brought by the pandemic.
The survey also looked to assess how the industry has responded to the pandemic, and how key players have evolved their business strategy. We also asked participants to reflect on how the future will look, and what key trends they are now anticipating.
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