Healthcare Services for Human Development in Punjab: Public-Private Partnership

Abstract

Health is considered as a significant contributor to human development. Better healthcare services contribute not only to improved health condition, but also to the increased productivity and income of people. Thus, the provision of healthcare is the responsibility of the government. However, in Punjab due to low level of government spending on health sector, the performance of public sector is not so good both in curative and preventive cares. Thus, the private sector has become the major provider of medical care. But, the private healthcare system is mostly inequitable and expensive. Therefore, the government of Punjab adopted the public- private partnership model in the provision of healthcare facilities. The most important problem with this model is monitoring and enforcement. Hence, it is suggested to develop regulations for efficient monitoring and enforcement of agreed terms and conditions. It is also suggested to link this PPP model with the health insurance schemes so as to make it affordable to the poor and other vulnerable groups of the society.