Chhitiz Kumar, Head – Government Affairs, PPP, and Healthcare Transformation Services, Philips India, believes that healthcare challenges in India can be solved if right PPP interventions can be achieved
Philips India which goes with the tagline ‘Innovating meaningful healthcare’, is focussing on increasing PPP centres in Jharkhand and Haryana from 10 to 36 by early 2019. The diversified technology company is enabling, a high volume-low margin PPP model across these two states and they are enabling access to high-end technology at half the rates charged by private diagnostic players.
Giving insights about PPPs success in healthcare, Chhitiz Kumar, CEO – Phillips Capital & Head – Govt Business & PPP, Phillips India said, “PPPs are all about bringing private efficiency into the public domain. Philips India has been doing a lot of work in healthcare domain for the past six to seven years. In the last two to three years, we have worked very closely with Manipal Hospital Group. We wanted to bring in a PPP model where a wide scale impact can be achieved in the remotest of the places and showcase how affordable, accessible and quality healthcare can be provided. Our partnership with the Manipal Group has showcased that long-term financially and technically strong partners can bring in a workable healthcare PPP model, which is a high volume-low margin business model where patients are benefited the most.”
According to the company, at present there are two PPP projects in diagnostic imaging in Haryana and Jharkhand which were run by Healthcare Diagnostic, an SPV (special purpose vehicle) between Philips India and Manipal Health Enterprises. The first PPP inked in mid of 2015 with the Government of Haryana was providing radiology services (CT and MR) for eight centres — four district hospitals and four medical college hospitals. Currently, they are operational across 10 locations. Some of these locations are — Rohtak, Gurgaon, Panchkula, Mewat, Sonepat (village –Khanpur), Bhiwadi, Agroha. Over 12,000 scans have been done out of the Gurgaon centre, out of which 1000 scans were completed free of cost, for select patient categories. Cost difference: for a government empanelled patient, the cost of a scan is reduced to one third (1/3rd) of the market price. The technology provided in the centres range from 16 slice to 128 slice CT and 1.5 T MR. The PPP centres in Haryana offer high-end services only i.e. high MRI’s and CT scans–1.5teslaMRI, high-end CT scans
The company added that the second PPP was signed with the Government of Jharkhand for all 24 districts. The technology spans from basic radiology like ECG, X-ray, ultrasound to high-end CT-scans and MRI.
“We are focussing on high-end radiology like MRI and CT scans in Haryana, as district hospitals already have facilities like X-ray, ultrasound. In Jharkhand, we need to give some of the basic healthcare facilities like X-ray, ultrasound, ECG facilities. We follow CGHS pricing,” Kumar informed.
Philips’ role does not end with facilitating with the technology, but they work with the radiology department to optimise the workflow and trained technicians to significantly increase the throughput.
Informing that healthcare challenges in India can be solved if we get the right interventions at the PPP, Kumar, said, “The state government and private players should work hand-in-hand. Philips Healthcare, wants to make a meaningful impact where the PPP model we provide offers affordability, accessibility and quality. PPP is always about making balance between the government and private players and keeping the patients in the centre. Any PPP model should follow these five steps – first is the right bidder selection, second is a viable business model where the private players can make a fair return, third a list of quality parameters to be followed should be mentioned. Fourth is about a balanced contract, clauses in the contract should be simpler, fifth one is about choosing the relevant, right technology as per the needs of the locality.”
Touching upon the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017, Kumar said, “The new NHP talks a lot about PPP which according to me, is a good starting point as the healthcare challenges in India are enormous and the best way to deliver the right outcome for the masses is when the public healthcare system and private players can work together.”
- Advertisement -
Comments are closed.