The Indian healthcare system faces numerous challenges during natural disasters. Some of the key challenges are:

• Lack of preparedness – India’s healthcare system is not well-equipped to deal with natural disasters, which leads to insufficient planning and preparedness which is a significant challenge in managing the disaster effectively.
• Infrastructure damage - Many hospitals and medical facilities may be destroyed or damaged during a natural disaster. The damage of hospitals and health centres force them to be shut or moved to makeshift locations, adds more stress to the available resources.
• Shortage of medical supplies and staff - Natural disasters often lead to a shortage of medical supplies and staff which exacerbates the crisis. Medical professionals in most cases do their best to serve, but the acute shortage of resources pose an unmanageable challenge.
• Inability to provide essential services - Natural disasters can severely affect the availability of essential services for patients including medicines, medical devices, devices for life support, nutrition, and sanitation. Providing essential service to the patients become an issue of concern under such situations.
• Communication breakdown - Severe weather events can often cut power and communication lines, making it difficult to transfer critical medical information and report on the scale of the situation to other neighbouring communities and authorities.

Overcoming these challenges during natural disasters will require a comprehensive, coordinated effort between the healthcare sector and the government, and greater investment in emergency preparedness and response.