Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Dec 1: The Karnataka government feels that partly privatizing district hospitals would be a 'bad decision' and has rejected the central government's proposal to the state department of health and family welfare to hand over all 50-100 bed hospitals for 30 years under the private-public-partnership (PPP) programme. Upgrades like better infrastructure, advanced treatments and service tax were to be included in the proposal to private hospitals.

"Health is a fundamental right. An opportunity to fix the price of treatment is included in the state's proposal. But private hospitals will gradually increase the cost for the treatment. Then there will very little difference between state-run and private hospitals. If that happens then it as though the government has adopted a commercial health policy," said health minister K R Ramesh Kumar in his reply to the Centre.

Nevertheless, the state government has the intention of upgrading government hospitals to the level of private super specialty hospitals, he stressed.

To ensure health for all, the state will soon come out with a comprehensive health policy and consolidate all the disbursed funds under one umbrella, he added.

The health minister said that some government hospitals treat better than private hospitals and self-reliant hospitals like Jayadeva, Kidwai and Victoria were well on their way to equal private super-specialty hospitals in treating heart, cancer and respiratory problems after tie-ups.

The Centre in its proposal had stated that cost of treatment was to be fixed and with subsidies from the centre. All existing health programme beneficiaries would be eligible for treatment under the centre's proposed health policy.