Maharashtra govt to establish three medical colleges under PPP mode

Pune: The Maharashtra government has decided to take up a project of establishing three medical colleges under a Private Public Partnership (PPP) model, stating to provide an affordable tertiary healthcare to all by the year 2030. 

As per a media report in the Hindustan Times, the announcement was made by the health minister at Latur on Friday.

Also Read:Medical colleges in Maharajganj and Bareilly to come up in tie-up with PPP Mode

Dilip Mhaisekar, director of Directorate of Medical Education (DMER) said, "The state government's idea is to include all the medical colleges under PPP model as directed by the NITI Aayog. The PPP model would first be set up as a pilot project in three medical colleges namely; Greenfield development of a 615-bed super specialty hospital in Nagpur (Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Super Specialty Institute of Medical Education & Research Nagpur), and operation and maintenance (O&M) of super specialty hospitals in Government Medical College, Osmanabad and Vilasrao Deshmukh Government Medical College, Latur."

The press note of the state government states that this plan would help in delivering quality healthcare to all sections, modernise hospital operations and speed up the training of health professionals, particularly doctors. 

The World Health Organization standards state that there should be 1 doctor for every 1,000 population, however, in Maharashtra, the ration is 0.84 to 1,000. However, currently there is an extreme shortage of medical and super speciality specialists and it would take nearly 20 years to reach the desired ratio according to the current rate of availability of new postgraduates each year. 

Mhaisekar further added, "Expansion of existing facilities and establishing new medical colleges and super specialty hospitals across the State is a priority for Medical Education and Drugs Department. The state government is seeking to leverage the skills, experience and financing of the private sector to enhance the public health system, and to specifically address these priorities. One of the ways it is doing this is through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)."

The government would be responsible for defining the key aspects of the projects – from the range of specialties to be provided, the quality they are to be provided at, to the number of medical students to be taught, through to ensuring that the very poor are able to access the hospital services and receive high quality care. Access to the healthcare would be ensured for patients who are covered under government-backed insurance schemes and for poor patients while accepting commercially insured and private patients. 

These features would be there in the government's requirements and the private sector partner would be expected to deliver to these requirements under the PPP contract, reports the HT. And eventually, the infrastructure, equipment and services would be handed back to the government when the contract ends. 

Also Read:MP plans to set up 10 new medical colleges via PPP mode