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Punjab Health Dept to Pursue Response to Notice on Roping in Pvt Players in Some Sectors

Amid strong opposition to its proposed move to engage private players to run some of the health facilities in public private partnership (PPP) mode, the Health and Family Welfare department is set to pursue expressions of interest it received in response to a public notice issued on January 20. Additional chief secretary (Health) Satish Chandra on Monday said the exercise to engage private players in some of the health facilities was on. “They will be engaged for some services,” said Chandra adding the modalities would be worked out later. February 4 was the last day to respond to the public notice according to which selected parties would be required to deploy the requisite staff, run and maintain the institution for a fixed tenure.

The Congress government drew flak over the proposed move with opposition legislators of Aam Aadmi Party and Shiromani Akali Dal categorically asserting that health and education should not be given into private hands. Campaign Against Privatization of Health and Education, comprising of activists and medical experts, held a protest on Saturday at Plaza, Sector-17, Chandigarh against the department move. Health Minister Brahm Mohindra, however said the proposal was for some areas where specialist doctors were unwilling to work and that health services would be provided at government rates. Assistant director-cum-nodal officer (PPP project) of the department Dr Gurinder Bir Singh said there was tremendous response to the public notice. He said NGOs, private hospitals and private doctors responded to the public notice in good number. Dr Singh said since interested parties can apply till the end of the February 4 deadline. ”We will count the exact number of responses received on Tuesday.” – Indian Express

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