Government think tank NITI Aayog has also advocated the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to improve health services in the country
NATHEALTH (The Healthcare Federation of India), today said that the government’s attention on Public Private Partnership (PPP) and actionable interventions with regard to regulatory changes could significantly improve the entire healthcare ecosystem in the country.
NATHEALTH’s‘Aarogya Bharat 2025’report recommends that India should have an ecosystem that better supports private investment in healthcare. The recommendations include –
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PPP’s to expand infrastructure, manage government delivery, improve financing, R&D, technology infusion and adherence to quality standards.
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Design a unique PPP framework relevant to the healthcare sector and standardise concessionaire agreements.
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Establish an independent agency responsible for managing PPP’s, and monitoring execution.
“We need to work in a collaborative mode to overcome public private trust deficit”, said Anjan Bose, Secretary General, NATHEALTH.
Government think tank NITI Aayog has also advocated the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to improve health services in the country against the backdrop of dismal performance of public hospitals at district level. NitiAayog advocates forming a body to promote innovative PPP models.
“NATHEALTH is very positive about the potential for PPP models to significantly improve healthcare infrastructure and delivery in India. We expect the Government’s initiative to promote PPP modelst o become a game changer and hope that the body to promote innovative PPP models, as envisaged by Niti Aayog, will be in place soon. PPP models could potentially be applied to a vast range of medical areas such as tertiary/secondary care, primary care, preventive systems, wellness, medical education, dialysis etc., as well as to provide wider and deeper coverage beyond urban India. We look forward to working closely and supporting the Government in this initiative towards achieving quality and universal healthcare at all levels”,said Rahul Khosla, President, NATHEALTH and President Max Group.
In addition, Niti Aayog has recommended outsourcing of primary healthcare to private doctors and promoting competition between government and private hospitals at the secondary level, which involves services of medical specialists.
This is a radical shift from the current system where the government funds pay salaries to physicians and specialists only in the (Primary Health Centers) PHCs. At the secondary level, choice and competition are seen as cost-effective options. Community health centers and private nursing homes could both be offered incentives by the government for efficient treatment and whoever provides better services will get more attractive compensation.
NATHEALTH strongly advocates that access to healthcare for all Indians could be made possible through the suggestedmodel with a nominal increase in the healthcare sector’s allocation in the Union Budget if the Indian economy continues to grow 7-7.5 per cent in the next several years.
“NATHEALTH’s ‘Aarogya Bharat 2025’ report encourages the build-out of healthcare infrastructure beyond the metros and in underserved areas with appropriate incentives and public-private partnerships”, informed Bose.
Universal Healthcare remains a big challenge. The draft National Health Policy 2015 mentions that 63 million Indians face poverty due to health expenses every year. “We need to scale up and expand current programmes to control Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) with integrated care offerings across screening, treatment and follow-up, enabled by partnerships, e.g. private-private, public-private and across delivery, insurance, technology and pharmaceutical sectors of the healthcare industry,” said Khosla.
“NATHEALTH members have participated in several PPPs within the healthcare space. Based on our collective experience, we believe there are significant opportunities to strengthen and simplify the PPP framework along several dimensions including tendering process, defining clear measures of success, enabling a conducive financial environment and developing a comprehensive governance framework. This will be a win-win for all stake holders and enable us to collectively achieve the dream of Universal Healthcare,” concluded Bose.
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