MP to hand over management of 18 Community Health Centres to private operators

According to The Indian Express report, the shortage has affected the availability of surgeons, physicians, gynaecologists, and paediatricians, and specialists that CHCs are expected to provide under national public health norms. According to the official source, at first, the outsourcing model would be adopted as a five-year pilot project. 

“The scheme will be evaluated during five years, and if the results are good, it can be extended to other community health centres in the region,” the department added. The choice of a five-year assessment timeframe is notable, as it indicates the government considers the measure a long-term structural change instead of a stopgap solution for staffing shortages.

The move is being seen as one of the state’s most notable recent experiments in public-private partnerships within the healthcare sector. Reports indicate that five of the 18 CHCs selected for the pilot project do not have a single specialist doctor on their staff. The initiative has been introduced at a time when workforce shortages continue to pose challenges to healthcare delivery in rural areas of the state.

The new system entrusts the government with the responsibility of providing medicines and infrastructure, while other activities like recruiting specialist doctors and other healthcare staff, and managing day-to-day operations will be dealt with by the selected private entity, trust, or organisation.

Officials in the Health Department stated that such facilities have been detected where providing specialist treatment is becoming a problem due to scarcity of the workforce, and this has motivated the cabinet to consider the pilot project. According to the department, the Public Health and Medical Education Department has taken the responsibility of preparing and finalising tender documents to operate the facilities.

“The Council of Ministers has approved the pilot project to outsource the management of Community Health Centres in Rewa, Dewas and Guna. A pilot project has been approved to outsource the management of identified community health centres in three districts of Rewa, Dewas and Guna, where most of the posts of doctors are vacant,” the department said in a statement.

According to The Daily, the move by the government follows a worsening staffing shortage in Madhya Pradesh’s public healthcare sector. Data for 2025-26 reveal that almost 75% of specialist doctor positions in the state remain unfilled. Out of 5,443 sanctioned specialist roles, only 1,495 are occupied, leaving 3,948 posts vacant. The deficit also affects general medical officers, with 2,689 of 6,513 sanctioned posts lying empty.

Health department assessments have consistently flagged the scarcity of doctors at village facilities and primary health centres as the main barrier to delivering 24/7 care in rural regions. As a result, patients from rural areas often have to travel several hundred kilometres to district hospitals or medical colleges for treatments that should typically be provided at the CHC level.

The initiative has been launched to address the concern of the existing workforce crunch. “With this decision, the health facilities will be better available to the general public, and they will not need to come to the hospital for minor ailments,” the statement said.