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Now, medical colleges under PPP model, three selected for pilot project
PUNE The pandemic highlighted the importance of public health infrastructure and to strengthen the same, the government of Maharashtra will now take up the development of three of the medical colleges in the state under Private Public Partnership (PPP) with an objective to provide affordable tertiary health care to all by 2030
PUNE The pandemic highlighted the importance of public health infrastructure and to strengthen the same, the government of Maharashtra will now take up the development of three of the medical colleges in the state under Private Public Partnership (PPP) with an objective to provide affordable tertiary health care to all by 2030.
Dilip Mhaisekar, director of Directorate of Medical Education (DMER) said, “The state government’s idea is to include all the medical colleges under PPP model as directed by the NITI Aayog. The PPP model would first be set up as a pilot project in three medical colleges namely; Greenfield development of a 615-bed super specialty hospital in Nagpur (Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Super Specialty Institute of Medical Education & Research Nagpur), and operation and maintenance (O&M) of super specialty hospitals in Government Medical College, Osmanabad and Vilasrao Deshmukh Government Medical College, Latur.”
The health minister made this announcement at Latur on Friday.
As per the state government press note this plan would deliver quality healthcare to all sections, modernise hospital operations and speed up the training of health professionals, particularly doctors.
According to the standards of the World Health Organisation, there should be 1 doctor for every 1,000 population, while in Maharashtra the ration is 0.84 to 1,000. In addition, there is a severe shortage of medical and super speciality specialists, and per the current rate of availability of new postgraduates each year, it will take over 20 years to reach the desired ratios.
“Expansion of existing facilities and establishing new medical colleges and super specialty hospitals across the State is a priority for Medical Education and Drugs Department. The state government is seeking to leverage the skills, experience and financing of the private sector to enhance the public health system, and to specifically address these priorities. One of the ways it is doing this is through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).” added Mhaisekar.
The government will define key aspects of the projects – from the range of specialties to be provided, the quality they are to be provided at, to the number of medical students to be taught, through to ensuring that the very poor are able to access the hospital services and receive high quality care. Access will be ensured for patients covered under government-backed insurance schemes and for poor patients while accepting commercially insured and private patients. All of this will be set out in the government’s requirements, and the private sector partner will be expected to deliver to these requirements under the PPP contract. When the contract ends, the infrastructure, equipment and services are handed back to the government.
