Private healthcare firms may soon offer services at government civil hospitals across small towns and in semi-urban areas.
NITI Aayog has unveiled guidelines and the model concession agreement for roping in private healthcare companies to provide instruments, infrastructure and manpower at government-operated district hospitals across India for the treatment of non-communicable diseases.
The guidelines come just a month after the government launched its ambitious Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme.
Niti Aayog said, "The rationale behind going in for a public-private partnership model is that public healthcare delivery in the country remains “constrained due to inadequate funding inability to attract and retain specialist human resources, infrastructure gaps and weak management capacity."
According to the Aayog's guidelines, the private companies will be chosen on the basis of transparent, competitive bidding and state governments will be allowed to customise these guidelines based on their requirement.
Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, said, "The idea is to provide world-class healthcare facilities at the district level."
