How #AyushmanBharat #PMJAY has opened up a window of opportunities for private sector? How can this benefit the poor? How can government and private sector join hands to ramp up the #health infrastructure in India? A thread:
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#AyushmanBharat #PMJAY provides free inpatient treatment to a large section of population in private & public hospitals. At the same time, it also has a potential to permanently change the infrastructure landscape of #healthcare industry in the country. 2/n
Many Indians seek healthcare in a private set up. However, for treatment requiring hospital admission, most of the poor go to public facilities as they can't afford pvt healthcare. Public infra is already inadequate. This has created immense pressure on public hospitals. 3/n
Due to market dynamics, private hospitals have been built considering needs of relatively richer thereby increasing the capital investment & operational costs. Many have facilities like TV, refrigerator, attached toilets, etc. Many hospitals also provide food cooked in-house. 4/n
With #PMJAY, 54 crore poor Indians are in a position to seek IPD treatment in a pvt hospital. Pvt sector now can think of investing to cater to this segment of populn. Challenge is to remain financially sustainable without compromising quality. How to make this possible? 5/n
One needs to think of ways to reduce cost of capex & opex. One option can be to set up a private hospital only with general wards rather than private rooms. In such case, it will be possible to take care with a smaller number of nurses. 6/n
Other option can be to set up hospitals doing specific secondary procedures giving them more efficiency in operations. Those requiring tertiary & complicated procedures can be referred to bigger centers (hub & spoke model). 7/n
Hospitals can think of outsourcing ‘hotel services’ while focusing only on ‘hospital services’. In fact, group of hospitals can also outsource certain ‘hospital services’ to further reduce the costs. e.g. tie-ups with blood banks, path labs, restaurants. 8/n
What are the other options you can think of? Perhaps, government may be required to provide additional incentives. It may be in the form of viability gap funding (VGF), land at a concessional rate, tax concession, some PPP model, assurance of stable policies, and so on. 9/n
In the budget speech, Hon’ble FM has already announced VGF window for setting up hospitals in the PPP mode, especially targeting aspirational districts to start with. 10/n 
I would request you all to share your concrete ideas. And would also request you to pass on a word to those having expertise/interest in this area. Your inputs are valuable to formulate a good policy & accelerate the process. 11/11
