The State government has no plans of privatising the Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) and contrary to the allegations being made by some political parties, MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu has said.
The MLA visited VIMS Hospital and interacted with its Director K. Satyavara Prasad on Wednesday. Later speaking to media, Mr. Ramakrishna Babu ruled out privatisation of VIMS but said the idea was to only to rope in private partners under PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode for certain services.
These high cost services like cardiology, neonatology, nephrology, sports injuries and stem cell therapy would be ‘outsourced’. The private investor would procure high-end equipment and treat the patients at a fraction of the cost of that being charged at corporate hospitals. All this would be done under the direct supervision of the hospital drector and doctors.
Citing an example, he said after the Chittoor Government Hospital was outsourced to Apollo the number of outpatients had increased from 700 to 1,800. The patients would be able to avail of all government health schemes like NTR Vaidya Seva, EHS, WJHS and Arogya Seva.
Mr. Ramakrishna Babu recalled that former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had laid the foundation for VIMS with meagre funds during the Congress rule. The allocation of funds was meagre even during the tenure of subsequent Chief Ministers K. Rosaiah and N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
The Kumaraswamy Reddy Commission was appointed to privatise VIMS during the tenure of Rosaiah. The TDP, which was in the Opposition then, had opposed the privatisation moves. The MLA said the issue of doctors working on deputation at VIMS was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister and the Health Minister in the past and appointment of regular doctors was sought.
The Health Minister has resigned from the Cabinet recently. We had also sought development of VIMS on the lines of NIMS in Hyderabad.
Replying to queries, he said that White cardholders would be provided all services ‘free of cost’ at VIMS.