PPP model should find cost effective solutions to healthcare: Azad

Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that the  country  needs to look at Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a synergetic arrangement which  ensures  that the private sector also contributes to public health goals. Azad said that a fine  balance has  to be worked out between profitability and corporate responsibility. Azad acknowledged that the Public Private Partnership in the context of health sector  can be a  vital instrument for improving the health of the population but partnership is not meant  to be  substitution for lesser provisioning of Govt. resources nor abdication of Govt.  responsibility  but as a tool for augmenting the public health system. The Minister was inaugurating the  7th  India Health Summit 2010 at New Delhi. Azad informed that over the last five years Govt. of India has invested nearly Rs. 45,000  crore to meet the healthcare infrastructure right from sub-centre to district hospitals. He  said a larger effort will be required in the 12th Plan period to achieve the goal of taking  the  total allocation for the health sector to 2-3 per cent of our GDP. "For the Govt. in the context of the health sector, profit would mean efficient, affordable  and accountable services to the people". Azad also stressed upon the fact that healthcare , to be sustainable, has to be affordable. Azad also informed that the Ministry of H& FW has tied up with the Ministry of Railways for providing land owned by them. He said  that private sector participation and investment in establishing diagnostic facilities,  hospitals, specialized and super specialty care centres is being invited. He said the strategy under the proposed National Urban Health Mission is to arrange for  the secondary and tertiary care medical needs of urban people through a system of health  insurance. "The common theme in all the projects has to be quality and affordability" he  emphasized. The Minister mentioned that the Govt. is reviewing the existing regulatory  system for clinical establishment and medical education. He also said that a Bill for setting  up a National Council for Human Resources in Health is ready to be introduced soon in  Parliament so that the issue of quality, quantity and equitable distribution of medical  education resources can be addressed. Azad said that the adversarial positioning between  public and private sector has to be removed so that both these sectors can contribute  hugely and in synergy to the task of healthcare for all Indians.  Source:Pharmabiz