Analysing the data of the patients’ preferences on the occasion of Patient’s Day on May 28, DNA has found that majority of the patients in the state prefer to avail of cost effective healthcare facilities offered at subsidised rates by public-private partnership hospitals.
Recent data of GVK-EMRI 108 services notes that 79% of all the patients in the
state were dropped by the 108 at government hospitals and the rest mainly at
ones run by private bodies and a small percentage – 21% — were taken to private
corporate hospitals. “The latest trend in healthcare is now changing towards preferences for private or public-private partnership (PPP) hospitals,” says Dr. Pankaj Shah from Gujarat Cancer Society hospital, a multi speciality hospital running on the PPP model.
The prime factors driving the patients’ preferences are the cost effective services
and high efficiency. “Majority of the patients in the state prefer to go to public
hospitals run by autonomous bodies which offer efficient and cost effective
healthcare facilities,” confirmed Dr. H L Trivedi from the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre.
The PPP healthcare providers are emerging as first preference of the state’s
patients during medical emergencies as increasing number of patients reportedly
suffer delays on being admitted at various solely government run public hospitals.
One of the major concerns of the state’s patients is that in critical moments
prompt ambulances services benefit them only if they choose to be taken to hospitals where the emergency admission procedures are quick. The critical moments that are wasted over admission procedures at community hospitals is the reason for the changing trend, say experts.
“Generally, in case of emergency we take the patient to the nearest hospital
which has the facility to give the kind of treatment that patient requires at that
time. However, in some cases, the patient has time to choose and the trend of preferring PPP run hospitals is gradually emerging,” an official from GVK-EMRI
said.
