Outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 across the globe and in India transformed all business sectors and more so the healthcare sector. We all understood the importance of health care sector more than ever before. Underfunded and neglected for decades, we realized the need to upgrade & scale up our creaky healthcare infrastructure to be better prepared for future public health care challenges. In June 2021, India is navigating the second wave of COVID-19 and experts predict multiple waves of COVID-19 and other similar pandemics.

The most obvious healthcare solution – simply expansion of the healthcare footprint, may not be the right nor the relevant solution. Scaling up & preparing the real estate for hospitals is time-consuming and difficult, however even more challenging is the acquisition/sourcing of experienced healthcare personnel including doctors, nurses, and other support staff to man these facilities. The solution lies in the ongoing trends in healthcare sector, and which is impacting real estate solution for the same.

In this article we will first discuss the impact of the ongoing changing trends including Telehealth, Building services and design, Property Sanitation and Maintenance, Moving Treatments to Off-Campus Facilities, Technology, AI, IoT, and Smart Cities on healthcare real estate. Second, why it is important to divest in real estate for healthcare and finally, how one can optimize healthcare real estate in current crisis.