The Hindu Business Line : Bengal plans to set up drugs, medical equipment unit

Plans ahead
Apart from manufacture of pharmaceuticals, the unit would also be engaged in manufacture, assembly, installation and maintenance of certain medical equipment, mainly for use in the healthcare delivery system throughout the State.

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Kolkata Feb. 21 The West Bengal Health Minister, Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra, said here on Wednesday that his Ministry was close to finalising a proposal, to be placed before the Cabinet soon, for setting up a State unit for drugs and medical equipment.

Speaking here at an interactive session organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Minister said that the unit would be established as a State-run "corporation".

Apart from manufacture of pharmaceuticals, the unit would also be engaged in manufacture, assembly, installation and maintenance of certain medical equipment, mainly for use in the healthcare delivery system throughout the State, Dr Mishra said.

"We have studied in depth such an experiment, already underway in Tamil Nadu. However, my Ministry's proposal may not replicate the Tamil Nadu model in view of specific needs of West Bengal," he said.

The Minister indicated that since the Government hospitals in the State bore the burden of healthcare (70 per cent in urban areas and 90 per cent in rural areas), the proposal should obviously be economically viable. West Bengal consumed medicines worth Rs 2,500 crore annually, while it manufactured drugs worth only Rs 500 crore.

The State Government has been pursuing the public-private partnership (PPP) proposal - one of them related to creation of a "health city" in Burdwan and the other was for establishment of a medical college in city.

"In the first case, medical infrastructure would be built and run by private sector partners within a complex, while the Government would provide land and the basic infrastructure. The medical college and hospital project is proposed to be set up by the State Government jointly with a private entrepreneur," Dr Mishra said.

Open to sharing infrastructure

He said the West Bengal Government was open to the idea of sharing the existing healthcare infrastructure if a strategic partner was willing to provide a portion of the services to people below poverty line at a highly subsidised fee.

The Government has floated schemes in the area of diagnostics and maternity, in which private sector partners can join in at certain pre-determined costs to be borne by the Government.

He felt that the cost of private sector healthcare in West Bengal was not competitive compared to its counterparts in certain States. Statistics indicated that, on an average, private medical services in West Bengal were roughly 30 per cent costlier.

Sanitation

Two districts of West Bengal — East Midnapore and Howrah — were poised to be declared "fully sanitised" and have been nominated for "Nirmal Gram" award at the national level.

The Government was striving to achieve this in three other districts of Burdwan, Paschim Medinipur and Nadia.

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