Healthcare and Public-Private Partnerships

New Delhi: The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that healthcare is not a solely local or national issue, it is a global issue and there is a need for public-private partnerships to provide healthcare, experts said on Wednesday.

Emphasizing the need for both public and private sectors, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Randeep Guleria said, "Private and government sectors complement each other. There is no competition between the two sectors."

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He added that there are certain areas where the public sector can do better whether it be training, be it having more medical colleges and trying to run them, or providing care as far as preventive medicine is concerned.

A lot of programs, such as child immunization program or TB control, can be run only as part of the public sector, he said.

"When we are talking of patient care, there has to be a little bit of understanding and that is being rightly said that public-partnership has to be in a way that there is confidence on both sides," Guleria said.

COVID-19 has taught us a lot and we have learnt that we have to work together, he added.

Stating that healthcare is a global issue, NHS UK Former Chairman Malcolm Grant said there are four areas where governments have a crucial role to play:

• Refocusing the tune of healthcare systems away from investments in hospitals as their primary priority and invest much more in community and populations.
• Ensuring that innovation is well focused.
• Ensuring clinical governance and clinical standards.
• Focusing on training of healthcare force.

He was speaking at a session in 'Asia Health 2020', organized by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and CII.

Emphasising that while their focus is on clinical outcomes, the private players in the healthcare sector are worried about the cost because they need sustainability, Asia Health 2020 Chairperson and Apollo Hospitals MD Suneeta Reddy said.

"We hope the governments will make higher allocations towards healthcare and move towards public-private partnerships," she added.

Narayana Hrudalaya Chairman Devi Shetty said no government in the world can have resources and financial capability to offer healthcare to 1.3 billion people from just taxpayers money. Two things that will transform healthcare in the country are a financial intermediary for working-class people, and a smart digital tool that is available to every hospital, he added.

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