In what can be termed as a fillip to the government to further expand the public-private partnership programmes in the health sector, several PPP programmes under the Union Health Ministry's ambitious National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) are working successfully in the country and even have earned kudos from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Senior officials in the Union Health Ministry said that several PPP programmes under the NRHM are working successfully and have become model PPP projects in the country and world. Some of them like the Chiranjeevi Scheme of Gujarat have caught even the attention of WHO. The WHO some time back had lauded the Chiranjeevi Yojana, which was aimed at providing healthcare to the pregnant women under which the government pays for the services provided by the private practitioners. Chiranjeevi Yojna was initiated under the NRHM as a scheme to increase institutional deliveries and to encourage private practitioner to provide maternity services in remote areas that record the highest infant mortality and maternal mortality rates in the state.

According to the latest data available with the union health ministry, some of the most successful PPP programmes that have become model PPP programmes under the NRHM include the Tamil Nadu government’s Criteria for Accreditation of Public-Private providers undertaken as part of the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for institutional delivery; Franchising, as per agreed standards and costs as attempted by the Surya Clinics of Janani in Bihar; Yeshasvini Trust Health Insurance partnerships in Karnataka for standard surgeries at agreed costs; and the Chiranjeevi Scheme of Gujarat to involve private sector Gynaecologists for institutional delivery of Below Poverty Line women.

Other successful PPP programmes are Initiative by government of West Bengal in partnerships with the private sector for its Mobile Health Clinics; Outsourcing of diagnostic tests successfully attempted in Bihar and West Bengal; community worker programme of Mitanins, ASHAs and link workers in some States involving private organizations on a very large scale in facilitation, training and resource support; the successful management of PHCs in Arunachal Pradesh by Karuna Trust, Voluntary Health Association of India and other organizations; and Emergency Medical Relief Programme (EMRI) of Andhra Pradesh.

NRHM was launched in April 2005 with thrust on creating a fully functional platform for health care at all levels, from the village, the sub-centre, the primary health centre, the community health centre, the district hospital to the district and state levels with the prime objective of providing quality services that are affordable, accessible and accountable. The NRHM Mission document has also articulated the need for Public Private Partnerships. NRHM encourages training and up-gradation of skills for public-private providers wherever such efforts are likely to improve quality of services for the poor.