Public private partnership Case Study

Public Private Partnership in Rajasthan's Health Sector: Outsourcing Diagnostic Services

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Abstract:
The health care sector in India has been witnessing a huge demand-supply gap in its service delivery, as public health care services are found to be inadequate in serving the huge population. To bridge this gap and improve the efficiency of services, health care reforms, especially in the form of private partnerships in public sector are being encouraged. The government of Rajasthan, India, has taken up an initiative in this direction. Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital, a public sector hospital in Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan, has been able to successfully implement a Public Private Partnership initiative. As part of the initiative, the hospital has invited private diagnostic centres to set up diagnostic equipment, CT (computerised tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan in the hospital premises. As a result, the hospital is able to offer high quality services at affordable prices to the poor. While the cost of services has come down drastically, the waiting time for patients has also reduced. At the same time, private partners are being benefited from the volume of patients who visit government hospital and are able to achieve economies of scale.

Pedagogical Objectives:

To discuss the impact of public private partnership in the health sector.

Keywords : Public-Private Partnership Case Study, Public private partnership, Health care sector in India, Outsourcing, Public sector expenditure on health care, Demand supply gap, Below poverty line (BPL), SMS Hospital, Licence-based model, Market competition, Diagnostic investigation services, India health report, National Health Policy, Medicare relief societies, Private health care sector