BJP-ruled States go for PPP model healthcare

The four BJP-ruled States, through Public-Private-Partnership will allow private institutions to upgrade the local government district hospitals and use them as teaching hospitals

Hyderabad: Unlike Telangana, which is establishing new medical colleges in all the districts by raising funds on its own, four-major BJP-ruled States – Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka are in the process of inviting corporate entities to construct medical colleges by handing them the management of their government district hospitals.

The four BJP-ruled States, through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) will allow private institutions to upgrade the local government district hospitals and use them as teaching hospitals for their privately-run medical colleges.

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Ironically, while Telangana was denied Central government funds for medical colleges, these four BJP-ruled States have already received grants from the Centre, which is 60 per cent of funding per medical college, under its Viability Gap Fund scheme. These States are now approaching corporate companies to raise the rest of the 40 per cent of funds to the proposed new medical colleges.

Allowing private sector to invest in government-run healthcare systems, including medical colleges, is fraught with risks. When NITI Aayog, the Centre’s think tank, came up with this concept in 2020, it drew widespread criticism from public health experts, who argued that such a plan to privatise District Hospitals will seriously impact health system.

Under the PPP model, dubbed as Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT), the four-BJP State governments are providing land to private companies on a 99-year-lease to establish medical colleges and also the nearest Government District Hospital with a capacity of 250 to 300-beds.

In 2020, after NITI Aayog’s proposal to involve private entities, there was a huge pushback from public health experts, who fear that privatising secondary care will seriously impact healthcare sector.

In an article on this issue published in The Lancet (January, 2020), president, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Dr K Srinath Reddy said that such plans will disconnect government-run primary health care services from secondary health care, thus disrupting a vital link in the universal health coverage pathway.

In the same article, Director, George Institute for Global Health, Dr Vivekanand Jha said that shortcomings in corporate hospitals could be repeated in District Hospitals. “We have seen profits and financial returns are uppermost in the minds of private investors and corporate managers,” Dr Jha said.