Ailing rural healthcare

The Punjab Government’s move (and subsequent clarification) to consider offers from private doctors and NGOs to run health centres in rural areas is in tune with the reality that its efforts alone are inadequate in meeting the needs of the rural populace. In cities, too, this admission of inadequacy has led the Centre to issue guidelines for co-locating private players for providing treatment in government institutions. Rural healthcare has been on the sickbed for long; the government’s efforts have always fallen short. This has forced villagers to flock to cities for treatment, adding to the burden on premier institutions such as Chandigarh’s PGI. What’s worse, health-related expenditure is a major cause of rural indebtedness. Government intervention to bring basic medical facilities to the hinterland has been half-hearted at best.

The state government advertisement seeking participation in urban and rural health centres in the PPP mode is a desperate measure, but it is well worth a try, provided the profit motive can be minimised. The government could first experiment with three pending proposals from NGOs. Fleecing of patients needs to be ruled out by notifiying the charges, followed by strict implementation. This will provide an alternative to corporates as partners, which has its own complications.

Punjab was among the last states to sign up for the Ayushman Bharat-PM Jan Arogya Yojana for extending health insurance cover to 42 lakh families. Despite objections within, the cash-strapped government decided to implement the scheme at an estimated cost of over Rs 300 crore. At a time when the NITI Aayog has asked the Central Government to accord industry status to institutional health facility, Punjab’s move to experiment with volunteerism can be a game-changer — if executed in public interest. The government has largely come a cropper as a service provider, but it can make amends by playing the role of an efficient facilitator.