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Health sector: PM for more public-private ventures

Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI: “While the public sector cannot be wished away, more public-private partnerships are required to meet the increasing demands on healthcare,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday.

“There is an obligation to streamline the public healthcare system; at the same time, healthcare cannot be left entirely to the public sector,” he said.

In India, the private sector had always played a dominant role in healthcare services and its positioning had been diverse — from alternative medicine at the village level to super-speciality hospitals in the cities.

Launching via tele-link the first of Apollo’s Reach Hospitals at Karim Nagar to cater to the rural segment, Dr. Singh said it was the beginning of a new saga of enterprise and adventure to ensure provision of reliable, affordable and accessible care to all areas. With telemedicine at its core, the Apollo Reach Hospital model was an ideal example of an effective outreach programme. He expressed the hope that such efforts would multiply.

“Providing good healthcare depends on the availability of healthcare providers and good health outcomes are dependent on concomitant factors such as quality of water, sanitation, education and infant nutrition. The connection between poverty and ill health is obvious. Along with education and employment, health is a major priority of the government in the last four years,” the Prime Minister added.

Over the last few years an attempt to address the serious deficiencies in the rural public health system — the National Rural Health Mission — had begun to show positive results.

These must be consolidated in order to address the challenge of making healthcare accessible and affordable, Dr. Singh said.

He also said it augured well that there was a surge of interest among Indian doctors abroad to set up health facilities in India. Medical professionals were excited about the possibilities available in the health sector in the country, the Prime Minister said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said Apollo was a model in the private healthcare sector. It was the focus of both the State and the Centre to start hospitals in rural areas, he said, urging the community, philanthropists, doctors and patients to lend support to such ventures. He also inaugurated the second of Apollo Reach Hospitals in Karaikudi.

Union Minister of Health Anbumani Ramadoss requested leaders in the private healthcare sector to keep costs down. The costs of healthcare in India were among the lowest in the world and it was necessary to keep them that way or even reduce them further.

Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals, said the Reach venture was an attempt to touch a billion lives. In the first phase, 25 hospitals would be set up in semi-urban and rural centres increasing access to speciality care. Eventually, 250 such hospitals would come up in a phased manner.

Preetha Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals, also spoke.

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