Govt stresses on public-private partnerships to improve health care in India

Union Health Minister J P Nadda pitched for greater public-private partnerships to improve health care services in the country and said that it was a major focus area for the government. Calling for overall improvement in teaching and training of doctors as well as para-medics, he said there is a huge scope for participation of private players in the health sector and government would welcome PPP projects.

“The government is working both in secondary and tertiary medical sector and I believe that we need to work out a module in PPP mode to lessen the healthcare burden of common man”, Nadda said while inaugurating a Liver and Digestive Diseases Institute (FELDI) at the Fortis Escorts hospital in New Delhi. Dr Ajay Kumar, Chief and Executive Director of FELDI, said the key to provide better healthcare services is a combination of good infrastructure, latest techniques and expertise of the medical professionals.

“The institute that has been developed with world class infrastructure, state of art equipment and backed by the leaders in the profession will provide care and cure to patients suffering from gastrointestinal, pancreaticobiliary and liver disorders”, Kumar said, while talking about the new institute. He said the centre will offer treatment for mundane disorders like diarrhoea to pancreatic diseases, cancers and liver transplant.

The 120-bedded department, that includes transplant ICU and ICU dedicated to Liver and Digestive diseases, has an extensive framework of specialised medical programmes and team of specialists. Lauding the establishment of the specialised institute, the Health Minister said the real challenge in the sector is to provide healthcare services to the poor and the needy. How will we be able to give the healthcare facility to helpless is one question that is unanswered.

“All stakeholders should answer this question. Enhance the teaching, the training should be at much higher, speed, scale and skill and above all there should be better communication”, he added. The Minister also said doctors are experts in their respective fields but they are not good communicators and the medical fraternity needs to address the issue.

“I have always seen that doctors are experts in their specialisations, they work with full precision but they are not good communicators. I don’t know if that is temperamental or there are other reasons but the communication part needs to be improved”, he said. The Minister said both Ayush and allopathy should have interdisciplinary interactions and same should be communicated to public to deal with these diseases.

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