Private sector should contribute to healthcare services: Mukherjee

To provide better healthcare facilities at affordable cost to common people, the Indian corporate houses should play a vital role, said Pranab Mukherjee, union finance minister after inaugurating GMR Varalakshmi Care Hospital at Rajam town in Srikakulam district.

The 135-bed multispecialty hospital was built as part of the corporate social responsibility initiative of the GMR group at a cost of Rs 50 crore.

Mukherjee said that, at present, there is a huge gap between the healthcare needs and availability of medical facilities in the country. To narrow this gap, Indian corporates should join hands with the state and central governments to create health care facilities as part of their social responsibility activities, he said.

Like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, Indian corporates too should donate funds from their profits for the benefit of common people, he said.

“According to latest population features, Indian is the youngest nation. But to gain from the demographic dividend of a young generation, we should provide better health care and training to the youth,” he said. He complimented GM Rao, chairman, GMR group for his social responsibility activities.

Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said the state government spent Rs 2,800 over the last four years on Arogyasree programme, which provides medical facilities to poor people through a community health insurance scheme.

He said so far more than 970,000 poor people had availed of services through this programme. The state will need 16,000 hospital beds every day to provide modern healthcare facilities to poor people on Arogyasree in the state, which will need Rs 2,500 crore investment.

So the government will need corporate houses’ help in this regard, he added. He complimented the GMR group for setting up corporate hospital in a small town, which can help rural people.