Public health expert Dr Antony KR said PPP in the health sector has often resulted in a loss to the government and taxpayers and has been beneficial to the private sector. “Very few philanthropic organisations and charitable trusts have sincerely collaborated with the government for the common good,” he said. “This PPP model of giving away district hospitals to private medical colleges should not end up in a similar fiasco.” Antony pointed out that the Chiranjeevi scheme in Gujarat – meant to give women from poor families access to institutional deliveries in private hospitals – had resulted in the weakening of well-utilised public health institutions in the Surat, Ahmedabad and Baroda regions. Also, the scheme had no takers for areas such as Kutch, which is poorly served by the government, he said. Similarly, when Chhattisgarh wanted to outsource diagnostic services in district hospitals, there were no bidders for the tribal divisions of Bastar and Sarguja. The private sector bid only for the Raipur and Bilaspur divisions, where they could make a profit, said Antony, who is an independent monitor for the Centre’s National Health Mission. Citing the example of Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, he stressed that private companies were reluctant to carry out public health programmes like immunisation, maternal and child health, and family planning in response to calls by the government, while being very keen on offering diagnostic services.
Sumi Sukanya Dutta, ‘Privatisation of district hospitals: Wheels set in motion in 5 states’, Moneycontrol
