UP draws up health privatisation plan

Uttar Pradesh Development Council issues consultation paper

The Uttar Pradesh Development Council (UPDC) is finalising proposals to usher in a private sector-oriented health sector in the state. It has issued a consultation paper in this regard.

The basic issue in the proposals relates to the funding of healthcare. As in advanced countries, while the patient should be free to get treatment, payments should be made by a third party, chiefly insurance agencies.

This will increase the occupancy rate of government hospitals as well as private, and the poor will be able to avail of the services. This will require more hospitals and investments.

Essentially, the paper asks for a deeper privatisation of health services and steps have been suggested as to how to achieve it: The state government employees should be permitted to get treatment at pre-determined rates at super-speciality hospitals too""as is the case at the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute in Lucknow.

It may be mentioned that the Central Government Health Services has set an all-India rate and empanelled hospitals with 100 beds or more in the private sector for treatment of government servants.

The central government health scheme, the paper points out, is gradually pruning its staff and facilities in its hospitals/dispensaries.

Another suggestion is that in government hospitals, private agencies should be allowed to operate diagnostic equipment, and with part of the proceeds that accrue to the government, health services will be subsidised.

Other proposals include the rating of private sector hospitals to be done by specified agencies like Crisil or ICRA to provide quality healthcare and promote health tourism; extra facilities like concessions or exemptions in trade taxes for buying equipment, land, etc. should be given to the private sector to encourage them to invest; before privatising on a large scale, the government should, as a pilot project, hand over health centres to the private sector after withdrawing government staff and equipment. If the results are satisfactory, it should go privatisation on a large scale.

Since most medical colleges do not have super-speciality facilities or faculties, the tertiary care hospitals should be used to train the staff and services should be provided at pre-determined rates. This will save the government expenses to send people outside for education.

Further, to fully utilise the available resources, super-speciality hospitals in the private sector should be asked to teach the students in medical colleges against payment. And their facilities should be open for use by students who have not been exposed to super-speciality equipment or hospitals.

The state government should not invest further in equipment purchase. And lastly, those in the state who have created large facilities should be given priority in implementing this policy. Investors from outside can be involved later.