In one of the most ambitious public private partnership (PPP) plans in Indian healthcare sector, the state government of Odisha will rope in private hospital operators to develop secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in 25 locations across the state.
The Odisha Affordable Healthcare Project (AHP) is expected to extend healthcare facilities to 16 million people and cover 72 per cent of the population. Over 85 per cent of the target population will come under the economically weaker sections of the society. The government has estimated Rs 1300 crore as initial project cost and expects it to generate 10,000 employment opportunities in the nursing and para-medical areas.
According to Pratap Jena, minister of health and family welfare, Odisha, the state government programme is superior to what is being worked out by the Central government under the Ayushman Bharat Mission. Jena said free treatment will be offered to deserving patients through the government's health insurance scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY).
"Our scheme is superior to the central government scheme. While the centre offers coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family, we offer Rs 7 lakh. While 60 lakh families will be covered under their criteria, we cover 70 lakh. While the Central Government scheme is available only for in-patient, our scheme covers OPD expenses as well," Jena said.
The PPP is meant to create the healthcare infrastructure that can deliver the services offered under BSKY. According to state government officials, AHP is a mix of 3 cluster projects and 19 individual hospital projects. The bed size will be 100 in some locations while the bigger hospitals that can act as hubs will have 200 beds each."The uniqueness of the project is that the government will provide a viability gap funding to the hospital developer for the first seven years. Separate budgetary provisions will be made for AHP for timely payments," an official said. The private players will be allowed to build and operate hospitals in the already identified land parcels under a 30 year renewable license.
Jena said the feedback from the private healthcare sector is good. "Hyderabad based Care Hospitals has already set up a cardiac speciality hospital in Jharsuguda. We are now looking for a partner to set up a cancer care adjacent to this facility on similar lines," he said.
Odisha has around 36,000 hospital beds, indicating a gap of 120,000 (77%) hospital beds in the state. At present there is only 0.8 bed available per 1000 population against WHO average of 3.5 beds per 1000 population for low-mid income countries. Private healthcare facilities comprise of only 27.59 per cent of the total healthcare facilities in the state. The new hospitals are expected to provide secondary and basic tertiary care services and be organically integrated into Odisha's Public Health System.