Govt looks to cure India with a booster dose for PPP

The govt is looking at a time-frame of five-seven years for a partnership with the private sector

A public-private partnership (PPP) model by which private players can set up screening and treatment facilities in district health centres to treat four non-communicable diseases is in the last stages of preparation.

So far, government funding to eradicate the non-communicable diseases in question —chronic pulmonary diseases, renal and chronic kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer — has accounted for three per cent of the funds allocated for the National Health Mission. 

In addition to the above, it was recommended that diabetes be brought in the PPP ambit. The government is looking at a time-frame of five-seven years for a partnership with the private sector.

A senior official said there were no structured government programmes to deal with non-communicable diseases. Most district health centres lack such facilities. Against the option of setting up such facilities with government funding, requiring a lot of resources and manpower, PPPs will enable creating diagnostic and treatment units in health centres, where the space will be provided by the government and the private service provider will do the rest.

The private player will charge a fee, to be paid by the patient but subsidised by the government. Service providers will be selected through open bidding.

 

 

The official said the NITI Aayog, in consultation with major private players, is preparing a model concession agreement for the governments, the Centre and the states, and private service providers.

The NITI Aayog has constituted four working groups to work out the modalities of the agreement and is holding interactions with major private players. While states such as Telangana have made their own agreements, players in the field say a concessionaire created by the Centre will make a uniform model for all to follow. The Centre disburses funds through the National Health Mission (NHM). States such as Andhra Pradesh have private players like Nephroplus working to provide dialysis in the PPP mode. 

“Any private health care service provider would like to expand its catchment area and PPPs provide it an ideal opportunity to do that,” another official said.

As of March 31, 2015, there were 153,655 sub-centres, 25,308 primary health centres (PHCs) and 5,396 community health centres (CHCs) in the country. 

Private players such as Nephroplus say the government should reconsider issuing tenders on the basis of financial bids. Vikram Vuppula, founder and chief executive officer of Nephroplus, said if the government took the lowest-bidder approach, there could be a compromise on quality. 

He says, “There should be a penalty of around two per cent of the monthly revenue if any service provider doesn’t provide quality treatment.”