To make available healthcare services for the patients across the country, government is understood to be consulting with the healthcare experts on adopting an 'asset light' model. Interestingly, this model, if adopted, may have the potential to strategically help the government in improving the healthcare delivery by utilising the available and existing healthcare resources to address the needs of the patients covered under the government schemes like NHRA, ESIC, RSBY etc.

Asset light model mainly focuses on bringing down the infrastructural and manpower cost incurred by the government by empowering the existing empaneled doctors across the country to treat patients covered under the schemes like National Health Assurance Mission (NHRA), Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) Employee's State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). All that the doctors need to do is treat the patients covered, collate and report the data to the Centre by maintaining electronic health record of the patients.

A highly placed source closely working with the government said that this will not only be an added advantage to the existing empaneled doctors, who will be duly recognised and remunerated for their efforts, but will also trigger more doctors to get empaneled by the government. While the biggest beneficiary will be the patients who will get effective and timely accessibility to their healthcare needs.

According Rajendra Pratap Gupta a healthcare expert and president of the Disease Management Association of India (DMAI), if adopted, this will be a perfect solution towards providing universal healthcare services to the patients, without wasting time and government funds on investing anew, by availing the already available resources, smartly. He added, “One of the biggest roadblocks that the government usually have to face while establishing a heathcare centric initiative is getting the proper infrastructure and trained manpower ready, by adopting this model half the work is already done. All the government will have to do is work in association with the doctors and utilise the benefits of the existing healthcare facilities to provide a better and efficient patient centric use.”

The other pro active initiative that the government is mulling over is to bring in healthcare reform by adopting electronic health record (EHR) across the healthcare spectrum to reduce paper work and bring in efficiency and transparency, as the data will be saved in cloud or chip card for easy accessibility. Gupta who was in-charge of preparing the BJP Election Manifesto along with committees chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, stressed that the government is committed towards bringing in positive changes in the healthcare system that will be more patient friendly and effective.