Hospitals would Face Shortfall of Critical Medical devices

It’s not just critical medicines that could witness potential shortages due to the coronavirus outbreak. Commonly used medical devices like digital thermometers, infrared thermometers, nebulizers, blood pressure monitors and glucometers could face the same risk soon.

Manufacturers of med devices have started pressing the panic button as they are running out of key raw materials — mainly the electronic parts for these items, imported from regions like Hangzhou and Dongguan in China. With no sign of supplies being replenished anytime soon, their assembly lines could face closure from March-end or April onwards.

At present, a majority of the demand for infrared thermometers (temperature gun) is from China itself, which is facing the worst-ever outbreak with cases still rising. There have been hundreds of enquiries, particularly for infrared & digital thermometers, from neighbouring countries too like South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, and even African countries.

As a result, a section of the industry wants the government to restrict exports of such critical items as infrared & digital thermometers, and three-layer surgical masks to build a stockpile to tackle the pandemic.

Further, with the disruption in supply chain, increase in prices of raw materials & components and higher cost of shipments, margins for companies are getting squeezed, which could impact profitability. Worst hit are companies that import finished devices (from China) and market them in India, and those that assemble items after importing the raw materials/components from China.

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