Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has recommended to the union government to call for proposals from large private hospitals to play a major role in improvement in the healthcare services in the districts. The plan comes after the members of the CII National Healthcare agreed to extend their operations to rural locations across the country.

The entire initiative by CII is fundamentally driven to create participation by the larger private players in the medical space to support the government in terms of offering better reach. We have been looking at members who have consented to kick off the public private partnership efforts, Vishal Bali, member, National Healthcare, CII and CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals Group told Pharmabiz.

Primarily, this proposal is expected to extend the medical talent in the country to rural areas. The responsibility of the engaging the district medical centres to have access to the clinical expertise of the large-corporate hospitals will give the patient the best of healthcare access. We view it as a good proposal for growth of the healthcare sector. The recommendations are made and we are waiting for the government to respond but are confident that it will receive a favourable nod, he added.

The healthcare community will come forward to support the cause. From big hospitals like Apollo to Fortis, Wockhardt and Columbia Asia will see doctors commuting to these centres to provide the care.

The outline of the proposal is that senior doctors will take a trip to these hospitals and the junior medicos will work at many of these centres on a rotation basis. This will give them exposure and experience of diseases and treatment modalities that need to be adopted, said Dr. GT Subhas, dean Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute.

CII is driving the strategy. This is part of the growth and expansion of healthcare. It will change management of the healthcare delivery sector in India, stated Apollo Hospitals.

With India emerging as a global hub for healthcare, the sector is witnessing reverse brain drain. Medical experts from abroad are keen to offer the quality, early diagnosis and fast treatment at affordable costs. NRI doctors and specialists are evincing interest in taking up jobs back home, said Dr Shashidhar Buggi, head, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases.