GE Healthcare has led a consortium to enter into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with Govt of Maharashtra to upgrade and manage advanced healthcare equipment in district hospitals at an investment of Rs.150 crore. The consortium which includes the Public Health Department of the Govt of Maharashtra, and Ensocare by Enso Group, will be setting up an advanced diagnostic facilities at 22 government district and women hospitals.

It will operate on a 24/7 hour basis and provide services at Government recommended rate cards for the benefit of the broader population. Orange and Yellow ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) card holders will be entitled to receive free diagnostic services under the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana (RGJAY) scheme at all 22 facilities which are expected to be operational within a year.

Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, said, “We are committed to providing better and affordable healthcare to its people. Today, we are on to a first of its kind, large scale modernization of district hospitals with latest diagnostic technologies. No single agency can transform the entire healthcare system in the country but by working together with partners like GE and Ensocare, we can take a giant leap in advancing health care to people at all levels in society. We hope to give benefit of this PPP model to patients under RGJAY Scheme in the State and also lower the costs for all categories of patients. We hope this will become a role model for all.”

The PPP agreement with Government of Maharashtra is the largest in terms of scale and includes the installation of four units of 64 slice CT scanners, 13 units of advance 16 slice CT scanners, eight units of cutting edge 1.5T Magnetic Resonance ImagingSystems, 22 high end digital radiography systems, 39 colour Dopplers and 39 analogue X-ray units. These advanced world-class imaging systems will allow district hospitals provide early and accurate diagnosis on a 24/7 basis in the clinical speciality areas of Neurology, Cardiology, Vascular imaging, Emergency/Trauma, Oncology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Gastroenterology, in addition to providing general purpose radiology, women’s health is given a special boost with the inclusion of 20 screening mammography units for early breast cancer detection.

John Rice, vice chairman, GE said, “Providing high quality, accessible and affordable healthcare is one of the biggest challenges faced by governments all over the world. Through progressive public private partnerships, like the one we are announcing today with the Government of Maharashtra, patients are the biggest winners as they’ll have access to advanced and affordable healthcare.”

Commenting on the new partnership, Banmali Agrawala, president & CEO of GE South Asia, said, “This PPP is the second partnership that we have forged with Maharashtra, the first being GE’s setting up of its advanced multi-modal manufacturing plant at Chakan near Pune that we announced last June.”

The 38 district and other large hospitals under Government of Maharashtra cater to about 100 million people. It is estimated that in a year, these hospitals carry out 100,000 CT scans, 50,000 MRIs, 300,000 colour Doppler studies, 900,000 X-rays and 40,000 mammography exams for early detection and treatment of diseases. In the absence of quality diagnostic imaging equipment, patients are frequently, referred to private centres which substantially increases the cost of treatment.

“We have found PPP a proven and effective way of improving quality healthcare access to more people around the world. GE has successfully participated in several projects targeted at addressing problems faced by public hospitals,” said Terri Bresenham, MD, Wipro GE Healthcare Pvt. Ltd and president & CEO of GE Healthcare South Asia.