healthcare that was viewed as recessionproof did not turn out to be pandemic proofcovid19 has caused healthcare to change nearly everything about how it operates and designs patient experiences telemedicine or online consultations offering specialist doctor care and nursing care at home for patients besides helping manage home icus is the new normal also to avoid crowding at hospitals the managements are now streamlining services and processeseveryone is living in fear to ensure that patients with prolonged illnesses dont catch any infection from the hospital the emphasis is now more on online and home care healthcare facilities and most of hospitals are catering to it farhan yasin vicepresident association of healthcare providers india ahpi kerala chapterboth hospitals and patients were hit soon after the national lockdown was announced in march as covid cases surged across the country the elective procedures were halted inpatient admissions were restricted with hospitals only encouraging admissions for critical patients while patients were scared to go to hospitals the healthcare workers were not too keen to handle patient rushthe effect was that hospital finances dropped big time with many hospitals seeing 50 to 75 drop in patients many covid warriors in the private hospitals had to work with 35 to 50 pay cut patients with existing illnesses initially avoided treatment and had to be later admitted to hospital for a prolonged time due to complicationsnormalcy is yet to be resumed in hospitals as there is still 40 to 50 drop in patient flow the most hit is pediatric department that has seen more than 75 drop in patients postcovid only emergency pediatric cases now come to the hospital kerala private hospital association kpha president hussain koya thangal the hardesthit are smaller hospitals that face the threat of closure leaving patients with fewer options for care this comes even as procedures in hospitals become more expensive as patients now have to shell out 10 to 20 more as payment towards ppe kits n 95 masks testing and even infection control measures undertaken at each hospitalthe future offers little relief at least until the pandemic subsides and the economy recovers the pandemic has shown that there is an ultimate need for more government funding for health and the role of private enterprises as partners said dr jayakrishnan a v chairman of indian medical associations ima hospital board of india