prasad1
Active member
Vasundhara Raje Scindia may be in the eye of the storm over the Lalit Modi case but the Rajasthan chief minister’s decision to open up the state’s health services is a bold move. Her government is inviting tenders to outsource 90 public healthcare centres in rural areas on a public-private partnership model, where the state will provide infrastructure, medicines and equipment while the private sector will hire staff and manage the centres. It is a welcome move to fill the gaps in a state with 27% shortages for doctors and a 53% shortage in nursing staff.
Rajasthan fares poorly on almost all health indicators, compared to the national average. Its failure in providing basic healthcare shows the limitations of state capacity to deliver so far. The move is being opposed on two grounds: the state should not abdicate its basic responsibility on healthcare and it may open the gates to unbridled profit-making for unscrupulous players. Both arguments are tenuous. Opening up to the private sector is not an abdication of governmental responsibility, it is in fact an admission of failure to provide what it is supposed to. Far from being irresponsible, it may actually open up the way to better services. Independent evaluations of such public-private partnership experiments in Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh and Punjab have been positive. The question has been about scaling them up. This is where adequate safeguards must be built in with robust and transparent performance indicators and good oversight systems.
If the Rajasthan experiment works, it will offer a template for other states to adopt as well. Overall, India ranks a lowly 112 on the World Health Organisation’s ranking of health systems, lower than Bangladesh and even Sri Lanka. It is time to try new solutions.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatime...&utm_campaign=TOInewHP&utm_medium=Widget_Stry
Rajasthan fares poorly on almost all health indicators, compared to the national average. Its failure in providing basic healthcare shows the limitations of state capacity to deliver so far. The move is being opposed on two grounds: the state should not abdicate its basic responsibility on healthcare and it may open the gates to unbridled profit-making for unscrupulous players. Both arguments are tenuous. Opening up to the private sector is not an abdication of governmental responsibility, it is in fact an admission of failure to provide what it is supposed to. Far from being irresponsible, it may actually open up the way to better services. Independent evaluations of such public-private partnership experiments in Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh and Punjab have been positive. The question has been about scaling them up. This is where adequate safeguards must be built in with robust and transparent performance indicators and good oversight systems.
If the Rajasthan experiment works, it will offer a template for other states to adopt as well. Overall, India ranks a lowly 112 on the World Health Organisation’s ranking of health systems, lower than Bangladesh and even Sri Lanka. It is time to try new solutions.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatime...&utm_campaign=TOInewHP&utm_medium=Widget_Stry
