AHPI calls for public-private partnership in healthcare

Talking to DTNext on the sidelines of AHPI Global Conclave 2017, Dr S Gurushankar, president, Tamil Nadu Chapter, Association of Healthcare Providers (India) (AHPI) said, “The problem today is healthcare that one gets differs depending on the income. For this, we can have group insurance schemes. Despite that, there would be challenges, since there aren’t enough hospitals in the rural areas.” He added that incentives could be given to private players to start hospitals in the rural areas. “Give them tax holidays, cut down customs duty and alter electricity tariffs as a boost. Wherever we build hospitals, the costs are going to be the same,” he said. 

Stating that government alone cannot meet the healthcare for all target in a populated country like India, Gurushankar said “We know that government hospitals are not functioning as effectively as they should be. We could encourage private players to take them up and charge those who can afford and help the rest avail the services free of cost.” He pointed that though Tamil Nadu has better health indicators, they are still not anything assuring. 

“That’s because we benchmark ourselves with the worst states. When we benchmark IT companies with the developed world, why not keep the same parameters for the healthcare. Even in a city like Chennai, the demographic distribution of hospitals is not right,” he said.