‘People of our country need a robust healthcare model that can guarantee access to quality healthcare’

Healthcare delivery up to village levels is the biggest challenge India faces today. This problem can easily be resolved if quality diagnostic facilities are created in remote locations and linked with centres of excellence through an IT and telecom interface. Reports can then be read by specialist doctors and then the patients can be referred to a primary, secondary or tertiary care facility. This will ensure right treatment at the right time and reduce the pressure on the tertiary care hospitals in metros.

The people of our country need a robust health are model that can guarantee access to quality health care till the village level. A glance at the cost involved in creating a health network up to village level will indicate that neither the government nor the private sector will be able to organise such large levels of investments alone. Government has vast resources at its command which can be leveraged to create a healthcare model that can effectively cover even those who are below the poverty line. Private sector has the entrepreneurial and managerial capability to leverage these resources in an economically and socially sustainable way. A combo of the two will work, provided there is a shared vision and a clearly defined set of roles, responsibilities and deliverables with a monitoring system.

Government can invest in several ways to make this model feasible for the private players by providing land and ensuring a better payment mechanism for the government employees and beneficiaries of its various schemes. This is possible if the patients are insured with the freedom to choose the hospital. The private partner will bring in entrepreneurship, professional management systems and resources by raising additional funds and bringing in partners for investment in equipment and additional facilities. For this partnership to be effective, mere investments and core competencies will not be enough. A partnership model will have to be built with the following elements built into the agreement:

• A transparent monitoring system with access to the Hospital Information System for the government to monitor the deliverables
• Quality certification through NABH and NABL to ensure standardised quality services
• Insurance coverage for BPL patients with a rate agreement similar to the one for the government employees

There are already enough regulatory mechanisms in use by organisations like CGHS, ECHS and several state government health schemes for the government employees and welfare schemes for the poor. All that is needed is a minor modification to the government systems to ensure a quick response system to avoid delays in decisions and payment cycles.

– Rajesh Srivastava, Chairman & MD, Rockland Hospitals Group