Gujarat, GE Healthcare join hands to upgrade medical technology
Ahmedabad, Aug 22: Global healthcare equipment maker GE Healthcare, an arm of General
Electric Company (GE), and the Gujarat government have tied up in a first-of-its-kind
public-private partnership (PPP) to upgrade medical technology in the state.
Announcing this here Friday, Gujarat Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the GE Healthcare and the department of health and
family welfare signed is for upgrading medical technology and for setting up diagnostic
imaging centres in five medical colleges and hospitals in the state under the PPP
model.
Listing various advantages accruing from this tie-up, Vyas said the partnership is in
tune with the government's vision of providing better, affordable healthcare to all
through increased accessibility of superior technology at affordable cost.
The medical colleges of Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamangar will be
provided with advanced CT and MRI facilities in the next five to seven months.
A specialized, centralized tele-radiology centre will also be set up in Ahmedabad. The
centre will be the first of its kind with regard to modernizing government healthcare
institutions in the country, he said.
In the field of public health, Gujarat is a frontrunner. It introduced the first
comprehensive School Health Programme in the country providing free check-up and treatment
right up to super-specialty care to nearly 13 million children, Vyas said.
In emergency care, the state has enacted Emergency Medical Services Act last year to
standardize emergency medical services, he said.
The state has also set up a state level Emergency medical Service Authority; a network
of trauma centres and supporting health facilities; and emergency medical transport
service in the form of 108 services, he said.
He added that Gujarat was the first state to push its public sector hospitals and
laboratories to obtain formal quality accreditation from the National Accreditation Board
for Hospitals and the National Accreditation Board for Laboratories.
The technology package in this PPP model is such that the students will be able to
learn how to use the latest instruments.
The charges for CT and MRI scans are 40 to 50 per cent lower than the market rate and
even the poor is benefited as out of the 60 MRI scans to be conducted daily at the
centres, 10 MRIs will be totally free to BPL patients.
"If the hospital superintendent feels the patient is poor, he is empowered to recommend
free diagnosis," Vyas said.
"GE Healthcare will invest Rs.350 million and our aim is to transform the Indian
healthcare industry," said president & CEO of GE Healthcare V. Raja.
As a complete service solutions provider, the tele-radiology centre in Ahmedabad would
link the rest of the hospitals that will help provide professional image interpretation
services and second opinion to hospitals and patients, Raja said.
"The PPP initiative has started a new era in healthcare and it is a natural way of
developing healthcare capabilities in the region," said state health commissioner Amarjit
Singh.
--IANS
