Guwahati, June 2: The DoNER ministry will carry out a feasibility study on whether medical and healthcare services in the Northeast could be further improved through the existing government system or public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
This was stated by DoNER minister Jitendra Singh last evening to a delegation of healthcare entrepreneurs, led by joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals, Sangita Reddy, in New Delhi.
The minister said this after Reddy sought a possible public-private initiative in health and medical care in the Northeast. "Many states in the Northeast have sought the reinforcement of healthcare and medical facilities. However, no final decision has been taken yet on whether this could be accomplished purely through public exchequer or PPP. The ministry will carry out a feasibility study on the PPP model too," an official statement from the ministry today said.
The Union minister, however, said the Northeast was running short of healthcare resources despite the region having nearly half-a-dozen medical colleges. "With increasing health awareness among all sections of society, the need of the hour is not only quantitative supplementation of the services, but also provision for quality healthcare so that patients from the region do not have to travel to faraway destinations for treatment," the statement quoting Singh said.
The minister said reinforcement of specialised and super-speciality healthcare in the region would increase the potential to attract medical tourism from neighbouring countries, thus generating revenue and economic uplift of the region. He further said the ministry would take measures to make the region a part of pan-India state-of-the-art healthcare infrastructure. He also sought suggestions from healthcare institutions, including the private sector.
Singh, along with Union minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju and Union minister for sports (independent charge) Sarbananda Sonowal, will visit Guwahati tomorrow and is likely to brief the media about the Centre's plans for the region.
A day after Singh's statement that the Centre was taking several measures under the Act East Policy to bridge the region's gap with rest of the country, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today charged that shoddy treatment was meted out to the region by revoking the "special category state" status.
In an official statement, Gogoi accused the Narendra Modi government of being in "back-track" mode on the Act East Policy. "How will Modi government fulfil its poll promises like generating more employment avenues, attracting investments and creating industries in the Northeast when the Northeast Industrial Investment and Promotion Policy 2007 was suspended by it? The Centre has also disappointed the social sector in Assam by slashing allocation of funds for centrally sponsored schemes," Gogoi said.
