Private sector shaping healthcare landscape
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: November 09, 2021 -

IT known to all that commercialisation in healthcare and medical education would hit hard those who couldn't afford the exorbitant service charge of private hospitals and capitation fee for pursuing medical studies.

However, due to service in the state's public hospitals not commensurate with the commoners' expectation approval given to the Shija Hospitals and Research Institute to run a private medical college would naturally be seen as development of the healthcare sector in Manipur in tune with the requirements for quality service.

Faced with public demand for high-quality medical care on the one hand and severe constraints on public resources on the other, private entities are being permitted to establish medical educational institutions to supplement government efforts.

There were reports about the move to allow private parties in producing medical graduates met with fierce resistance in Maharashtra in the early 80s when the junior medical fraternity rose against the idea of the government permitting private medical colleges to charge capitation fees as the one-off admission expense was 100 times those of government colleges.

In-spite of the voice of dissent in Maharashtra evoking sympathy across India and drawing huge media and public support, the importance of having more private medical colleges overshadowed the capitation fee issue as is evident from Maharashtra alone having over 20 out of 200-plus private medical colleges in the country offering different courses and churning out in excess of 27,000 medical graduates a year compared to around 25,000 from government medical colleges.

Owing to the yawning gap in the number of healthcare facilities and growing population, the need for addressing shortage of health-care personnel and ramping up infrastructure required for high-quality modern medical education is being accorded importance by the present regime expensive. Therefore, the role of private medical colleges in shaping the country's healthcare landscape has been paramount.

While it is obvious that majority of the population wouldn't be able to undergo treatment in private hospitals many would be hoping that with increase in the number of healthcare centres in the state there would be stiff competition among these healthcare service providers and consequently lead to the private players in the healthcare sector either keeping their service charge affordable or the hospital authorities showing humane side and making special provisions for the poorer section of the society.

For instance, there were reports of handful of private hospitals in some major Indian cities providing service at hugely subsidised fee or levying nothing at all from the marginalised section of the population. Though there is remote chance of materialisation of the second option in the state, at-jeast in the formative stages of running private hospitals, for it has been the norm for any private entities to recover the huge investment at the soonest possible, it is indeed a moment to cherish that SHRI would be the first in the northeast region to have a home-grown private medical college.

As affirmed by SHRI managing director Dr Palin during formal announcement for establishing Shija Academy of Health Sciences on Sunday, the new medical college will prioritise promotion of emphatic and responsible medical graduates and post-graduates for affordable quality healthcare service.

How far Dr Palin's words could be translated into actual action only time will tell but the fact remains that Manipur not only needs more healthcare facilities capable of tending to the growing number of citizens with varied health issues but lack of compassion and sincerity as well as administrative inefficiency among the healthcare professionals in government hospitals has been the root cause for sprouting of private hospitals in the state.

Unlike in the private hospitals where precision in the administration and service schedule has been one of the hallmarks, healthcare service providers in government hospitals have no qualm in deferring treatment procedures, including scheduled surgeries, citing absence of support staff assigned for duty or even owing to busy schedules of the doctors concerned.

Moreover, there is huge difference in the time taken to complete formalities for government health schemes such as CMHT or Ayushman Bharat in private and government hospitals.