NICE sets up hospital under PPP model

Hyderabad: The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia was in the city to inaugurate the 120-bedded hospital of NICE (Neonatal Intensive Care and Emergencies) Institute, set up under the PPP model by NICE Foundation, Naandi Foundation and the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Dr K Anji Reddy, Chairman of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said the Rs 50-crore facility could be made possible because of donations and contributions from both the Government, corporates and philanthropists.

Dr M. Padmanabh Reddy, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a senior neonatal specialist himself, said the hospital would offer affordable medicare to all.

“We will take contributions from philanthropists and set aside 50 per cent of the 120 beds for the under-served,” he said.

The institute would have sophisticated Giraffe incubators, “which are as good as a womb outside the mother’s womb,” he said.

Dr Anji Reddy said the institute would network with about 120 maternity hospitals in the State capital to ferry the infants that needed immediate attention.

“We will also train their staff and help them upgrade their equipment at their own hospitals,” he added.

Mr Ahluwalia, has expressed confidence that success of public private partnerships (PPP) would remove scepticism on whether it would work with more projects being taken up across the country.

He said that one of the things done by the Planning Commission was to learn from the success stories of various States and suggest what was feasible to others who intend to take up similar projects.

“There is a lot of scepticism if PPP projects would work because the concept is new, but in the next five to six years with more success stories like the NICE Institute many more projects in various sectors will be taken up under this concept,” he said.

Mr Ahluwalia added that the PPP concept had taken off in infrastructure development enabling the Government to leverage its limited resources. “The Prime Minister has also asked the Planning Commission to suggest steps to extend this concept to take up social sector initiatives are we are looking into this aspect,” he said.

In his address, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said that making high-end medical treatment available to the poor has been his Government’s priority.

“Around 87 per cent of the State’s population are getting free tertiary care following the introduction of the Rajiv Arogyasri health insurance scheme. Under this around 800 medical and surgical procedures are available to the poor, which is costing the Government Rs 1,000 crore a year,” Dr Reddy said.

Worried over the alarming levels of infant mortality, Naandi Foundation, a non-profit organisation promoted by the pharma major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, launched Neonatal Intensive Care and Emergencies (NICE).

It is mostly targeted at the economically weaker sections, who end up losing their offspring soon after birth, often in less than a month after their birth.