hundreds of chip-based critical care and intensive care medical equipment, such as ventilators, defibrillators, imaging machines, glucose monitors, electrocardiogram monitors, blood pressure monitors, and implantable pacemakers. According to medtech companies, the impact on stocks may be severe by the end of the year, with overall prices projected to increase by as much as 20%. Thus far, the impact of chip shortage has affected only high-profile consumer-oriented industries such as autos and electronics.
Sunil Khurana, CEO & MD of BPL Medical Technologies, which develops medical equipment such as anaesthetic machines, patient monitors and ICU ventilators, spoke about the chip shortage. He said, “At present, we are able to manage the demand and hold the prices of the medical devices. The uncertainty is, however, growing and an acute shortage may hit us by year end when existing stocks of microprocessor chips may get depleted”. For example, touchscreen-enabled medical equipment such as patient monitors, defibrillators, and electrocardiograms are no longer available on the market. The chips are imported from China, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States via domestic suppliers.
Vishwaprasad Alva, MD of Skanray Technologies, producer of critical care and ICU equipment, spoke about the reasons for the shortfall. He said, “The industry has sensitised the Centre several times since 2012 about the need to build our semiconductor fabrication plants to become truly ‘Atma Nirbhar’ in electronics and medtech. In the mid-’90s, we had a robust and vibrant computer hardware sector. Thereafter, it was neglected. We were caught sleeping while China had a clear executable strategy. It’s time to look at this with priority. If we don’t have time to invent, we could blindly copy the China hardware model. It’s late but still possible to be fairly ‘Atma Nirbhar’ in 10 years if there is a separate ministry for self-reliance and a non-political experts’ panel”.
