Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, June 1: Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER),Govt of India will explore various options of new initiatives in the field of health and medical care for North-Eastern region. The feasibility of these initiatives either purely as public enterprise or through public-private participation will also be worked out.
This is was stated here today by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh after a meeting with a team of medical / health entrepreneurs led by Joint Managing Director of pan-India chain of Apollo Hospitals, Sangita Reddy who handed over to the Minister a request letter for a possible public-private initiative in health and medical care in Northeast.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said , many State governments in the Northeast and the their Chief Ministers had expressed the requirement for reinforcement of healthcare and medical facility in their respective States. However, there was no final word and it was yet to be decided whether this could be accomplished purely through public exchequer or through public – private enterprise and in case of latter, a definite module of guidelines needed to be worked out.
Despite nearly half a dozen medical colleges in the region, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Northeast is still faced with a huge shortfall of health resources. 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 high quality healthcare so that patients from the region do not have to travel to distant destinations for treatment, he observed.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said, reinforcement of specialized and super-specialized healthcare in the region also held the potential to attract medical tourism from neighbouring countries, thus generating revenue and economic upliftment of the region. While seeking to bring Northeast closer to mainstream India, DoNER Ministry will also try to make the region a part of pan-India state-of-the-art healthcare infrastructure, he added.
Being himself a medical professional, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, he will be open to suggestions and offers from various healthcare agencies from both private as well as public sector across the country and in the same light, the offer made by the Apollo Group of Hospitals will also be studied considering that this is one of the earliest corporate chains of hospitals to be set up in India way back in 1983.
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