{"id":36069,"date":"2018-11-01T13:24:13","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T07:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=36069"},"modified":"2018-11-01T13:24:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T07:54:13","slug":"ministry-niti-aayog-moot-privatisation-of-select-services-in-district-hospitals-niti-aayogs-public-private-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/ministry-niti-aayog-moot-privatisation-of-select-services-in-district-hospitals-niti-aayogs-public-private-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministry, NITI Aayog moot privatisation of select services in district hospitals (NITI Aayog\u2019s Public Private Partnership)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/ministry-niti-aayog-moot-privatisation-of-select-services-in-district-hospitals\/article19309644.ece?homepage=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ministry, NITI Aayog moot privatisation of select services in district hospitals<\/span><\/a> (NITI Aayog\u2019s Public Private Partnership)<\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under proposed PPP model of NITI Aayog, private players will get 30-year leases on space in district hospitals<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>NITI Aayog and Health Ministry\u2019s Stand<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a part of a radical \u2018privatisation project\u2019, the Health Ministry and the NITI Aayog have developed a framework to let private hospitals run select services within district hospitals, on a 30-year lease.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In consultation with the World Bank, the government will be allowing \u201ca single private partner or a single consortium of private partners\u201d to bid for space in district level hospitals, especially in tier 2 &amp; 3 cities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under this Public Private Partnership (PPP), care for only three non-communicable diseases \u2014 cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, and cancer care \u2014 will be provided.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A model contract drawn up by NITI Aayog has been sent out to State giving the states a two-week window to furnish responses.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Drafting of the Document<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The draft document was prepared by a working group comprising representatives from the industry, Health Ministry and representatives of a few states.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the draft model contract, private hospitals will bid for 30-year leases over portions of district hospital buildings to set up 50- or 100-bed hospitals in smaller towns across the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The State governments could lease up to five or six district hospitals within the State<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, the State governments will give Viability Gap Funding (VGF), or one-time seed money, to private players to set up infrastructure within district hospitals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The private parties and State health departments will share ambulance services, blood banks, and mortuary services.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Issues with the Drafted Model<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it is clear that insured patients will receive free care, it is not at all clear what will happen to the vast majority of the population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In particular, it is not clear how the referral arrangements will be worked.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It says that states can, if they wish, refer 100% of patients for cashless care, it is a matter of concern that it also proposes that States can set a cap on this entitlement<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But no statement has been released with regard to the execution of the same and neither any clarification has been issued that what would be the succeeding series of action once the cap is reached.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is particularly disturbing is the suggestion that only Below Poverty Line (BPL) patients and those in insurance schemes will be able to access free care.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This would effectively exclude hundreds of millions of the Indian population from vital hospital services.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also the policy document has come under sharp criticism for the Ministry\u2019s failure to consult with key stakeholders from civil society and academia.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Underlying Implication: NITI\u2019s Changing Role<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The public private partnership model drafted by NITI Aayog highlights a changing role of the board.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Health policy is a State issue in India and NITI Aayog has no standing place for the same.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The logic behind shutting down the Planning Commission was to ensure that policies are not centralized<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NITI Aayog was to be an advisory body but here they are rushing through a policy that will essentially hand over public assets to the private sector, leading to a further dismantling of the public services available for free.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ministry, NITI Aayog moot privatisation of select services in district hospitals (NITI Aayog\u2019s Public Private Partnership) Context Under proposed PPP model of NITI Aayog, private players will get 30-year leases on space in district hospitals NITI Aayog and Health Ministry\u2019s Stand As a part of a radical \u2018privatisation project\u2019, the Health Ministry and the NITI&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/ministry-niti-aayog-moot-privatisation-of-select-services-in-district-hospitals-niti-aayogs-public-private-partnership\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Ministry, NITI Aayog moot privatisation of select services in district hospitals (NITI Aayog\u2019s Public Private Partnership)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}