GE Healthcare, the US $17 billion healthcare business of General Electric Company, has entered into a tripartite pact with the Government of Madhya Pradesh and New Delhi-based Sanya Hospitals and Diagnostic Centre to provide affordable healthcare using advanced technology.

Under the agreement, Sanya Hospitals and Diagnostic Centre will invest Rs 8 crore, GE Healthcare will provide the technology and training and the government of Madhya Pradesh has identified the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Medical College Hospital in Jabalpur to set up the advanced hi-tech diagnostic centre.

This is for the first time that the GE Healthcare has entered into a public private partnership.

Sanya Hospitals and Diagnostic Centre has allocated the Rs 8 crore for the purchase of equipment and agreed to provide doctors, nurses and technicians to the medical college hospital for diagnostic imaging services using CT and MRI.

The Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Medical College Hospital in Jabalpur will have a diagnostic centre equipped with a GE Lightspeed 16-slice computed tomography system (CT) and a Signa HDx1.5T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. Sanya Hospitals and Diagnostic centre will provide the diagnostic imaging services at the new imaging centre at an affordable cost. The installation of GE Light Speed CT is complete and was inaugurated Health Minister, Ajay Vishnoi.

"The partnership envisages our vision to make advanced healthcare technology affordable and accessible to needy patients across the country. Our ambition is to take this model forward in the state as well as across the country, in an effort to transform the Indian healthcare sector", stated V Raja, president and CEO, GE Healthcare, India.

According to Hiralal Gupta, director, Sanya Hospitals and Diagnostic Centre, the partnership will reduce diagnostic imaging costs for patients by approximately 30 per cent and up to 50 per cent for below poverty line (BPL) patients. We are glad to be a part of the pioneering public private partnership initiative with the GE and the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Currently, the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Medical College Hospital has no CT or MRI facilities, forcing patients to go to private clinics while medical students are unable to gain practical exposure of learning new diagnostic modalities. The diagnostic centre set up under this project will also assist medical students at the college to undertake their thesis research.

"Partnering with the global and local expertise of GE Healthcare and Sanya Hospitals and Diagnostic Centre will help develop our healthcare capabilities in the region. We also look forward to benefit from their technical know-how and expertise on the academic front," said Dr K D Baghel, Dean and CEO, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Medical College Hospital, Jabalpur.