India has one of the largest networks of public hospitals in the world. However, healthcare system in India faces a challenge in the raising service quality and ensuring equitable access to people while simultaneously gearing up its capabilities to tackle the changing disease incidence profiles. This challenge can be addressed through concerted effort both by public and private sectors. The tri-party partnership is a reflection Enso Group and GE's commitment to enable better healthcare for more people and Government of Maharashtra's agenda of providing affordable healthcare to its population.
Speaking on the occasion, Suresh Shetty, health minister said "Government of Maharashtra is committed to providing better and affordable healthcare to its people. Today, we are on to a first of its kind, large scale modernization of district hospitals with latest diagnostic technologies. By working together with partners like Ensocare who are the funding arm and GE Healthcare we can advance healthcare to support all economic groups. We hope to cover a minimum of 60% Rajiv Gandhi Yojana Scheme Card holders in the State and also lower the costs of patients by 50% through this PPP model."
The PPP agreement with Government of Maharashtra is the largest in terms of scale. The package includes installation of 4 units of 64 slice CT scanners, 13 units of advance 16 slice CT scanners, 8 units of cutting edge 1.5T Magnetic Resonance Imaging with 16 channels, 22 high end digital radiography systems, 39 color Doppler's and 39 analog x-ray units. Women's health is given a special boost with the inclusion of 20 screening mammography units for early breast cancer detection.
Vaibhav Maloo, chairman, Ensocare said "We decided to enter into this PPP to create a meaningful impact on overall Indian society. We have chalked out plans of investments of US$ 50 million with an appetite for more projects with various other state governments too. Currently we have won tenders for Maharashtra and Punjab governments for diagnostics facilities in 43 civil hospitals, 22 in Maharashtra and 21 in Punjab. GE is a renowned OEM and we are proud of our association with them. We plan to include value added services and free treatments for the extreme bottom of the pyramid patients with the help of IT innovation, cutting edge technology and well-trained medical staff. We are currently investing time in building our management bandwidth and operational capabilities to execute the job at hand as quickly as possible."
38 district and other large hospitals under Government of Maharashtra cater to about 100 million people. It is estimated that in a year, these 38 hospitals would be referring over 100,000 CT scans, 50,000 MRIs, 300,000 color Doppler studies, 900,000 x-rays and 40,000 mammography exams required for early detection and treatment of diseases. However, in the absence of quality diagnostic imaging infrastructure, these studies are quite often referred to private centres which substantially increases the cost of treatment.
Dr Akil Khan, vice chairman, Ensocare said "The Economics of volume and scale is no different to the Healthcare industry which is being seen as the Sunrise sector in India. Healthcare business has evolved over the last decade with world class hospital infrastructure with modern amenities being the norm of the day catering to the affluent. Corporate chains have set up the benchmark with quality healthcare delivery systems all across tier I cities in India but none catering to the rural centers.The business of diagnostics has also seen private giants organizing the pathology services on a national and international level within the urban centers. The irony of the situation is that all these respectable conglomerates cater to 5-10 % percentage of a 1.24 billion population in India. What is even worse that the most organized models of healthcare delivery like the NHS in UK are known for the modernization and state of art healthcare delivery at the Public and Government hospital level unlike India. This unique opportunity as provided by this PPP will change the dynamics of Healthcare in India, with the largely divided middle class and the underprivileged getting Diagnostic services to begin with, at zero cost or at heavily subsidized costs and also getting Global standards both in Equipment quality on Wipro GE equipments and international delivery with Ensocare. I congratulate the mammoth efforts of Hon'ble Chief Minister and Health Minister of Maharashtra and their efforts will surely make a difference to 100 million hearts in the state of Maharashtra."
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