A couple of doctors I met recently confessed that even the medical fraternity, except for a few sophisticated and high-tech hospitals, disregard hygiene norms and one doctor uses the same surgical gown used by another, throwing to the winds all the norms for infection control. India still is at a lower rung when it comes to hygiene discipline, and this underscores the vast scope that medical textiles hold for the nation and for export. In 2014, the domestic market for medical textiles is worth US$ 600 million, and growing at a CAGR of 8 per cent to 9 per cent, this is expected to reach a figure of $780 million by 2017. Low cost labour, large domestic market, and investment in healthcare infrastructure development are expected to boost the medical textile market. The major growth drivers for this segment include the growing needs for better and convenient primary wound dressing materials, use of smart textiles in healthcare field, increasing number of cardiac surgeries in India, growing disposable income increasing accessibility towards medical textile products, increasing consciousness among people with regard to personal care and hygiene, and aging population. The surgical dressings and surgical sutures alone are worth $280 million in 2014, and incontinence diapers, which have a market share of $1.1 million is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25 per cent in the next five years. The expected CAGRs for sanitary napkins is 12% and that for artificial implants 17 per cent.
The initiatives that will impact the consumption of these medical textiles include the universal health coverage scheme, 100 per cent FDI allowed under automatic route, support to PPP model to improve availability of healthcare services, tax support for hospitals set up in rural areas (under 80-lb and incentives and tax holidays for medical travel facilities. Now, India has a Centre of Excellence in SITRA, which is doing plenty of research. Besides, the Government plans about 15 more textile parks, the focus of which will be to encourage technical textile projects. Undoubtedly, medical textiles and their niche products offer unimaginable scope for entrepreneurs with guts!