Maharashtra plans to enhance the capacity of human resources for health (HRH) under the public-private partnership (PPP) model

摘要

As per the WHO, the term ‘skilled human resources for health’ (HRH) refers to ‘people engaged in actions that primarily enhance health’. Major disparities between the desired and actually available HRH exist all over the world, especially in low-and middle-income countries. The WHO had calculated the health worker threshold by 2030 to be a median density of 4.45 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1000 population—translating to the popularly quoted figure of 1 doctor/1000 population (Horton et al. Final report of the expert group to the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, 2016). The distribution of HRH across various states of India is highly variable. The WHO Global strategy on human resources for health report (Global strategy on human resources for health: Workforce 2030. Geneva:WHO; 2016) stated that India needs at least 1.8 million doctors, nurses and midwives to achieve the minimum threshold.On 22 April 2022, the Maharashtra State Government has announced plans to add 1600 MBBS seats in the state by setting up new medical colleges in 16 districts of the state including Ahmednagar, Amravati, Buldhana, Hingoli, Jalna, Nashik, Palghar and Ratnagiri, suburban Mumbai and Thane. Following the NITI Aayog directive to the states to use the public-private partnership (PPP) model (https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2020-06/Concession-Agreement-Guiding-Principles-Medical-Education.pdf), the Government of Maharashtra plans to first set up as a pilot project in the PPP model: Greenfield development of a 615-bed super-specialty hospital in Nagpur, operation and maintenance of super-specialty hospitals in the Government Medical College, Osmanabad and Vilasrao Deshmukh Government Medical College, Latur. The State Government has also planned to add 50 MBBS seats to the existing government medical colleges. The State Government is also planning to add 1100 postgraduate seats in the next 3 years and creating 400 super-specialty seats from 2026 onwards. This plan aims at delivering quality healthcare to all sections of the community, modernize hospital operations and speed up capacity building of the HRH.