The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the leading industry body, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the healthcare industry body -Healthcare Federation of India (NATHEALTH) to jointly strengthen healthcare systems through Policy Advocacy & Public-Private-Partnerships. The MoU aims to provide a wider representation of the healthcare industry to key stakeholders in areas of policymaking and creating a suitable environment to benefit all stakeholders. 

Under the agreement, two apex industry bodies intent to co-operate and focus their efforts on creating and implementing policies that help build trust, share knowledge and resource and create commercial opportunities for the mutual benefit of its members.

Through this collaboration, FICCI and NATHEALTH have identified five major areas of collaboration viz. Policy Advocacy, Public-private partnership, Recommending financial models, Patient Charter and Capacity Building. They have also agreed to develop a common minimum agenda for the year, aligned to national healthcare goals and work towards getting the government’s support in taking this agenda forward.

Brig Dr Arvind Lal, Chair, FICCIHealth Services, while signing the MoU said, “FICCI has set up several Task Forces to recommend measures for strengthening a number of specialist doctors, pricing and accountability in healthcare and bridging the trust deficit. Through this collaboration, both FICCI and NATHEALTH would be able to present a unified voice for the healthcare industry in critical areas such as capacity building, quality and Patient Charter”.

“We have common interests and objectives. We will establish channels of communication and co-operation that will promote and advance the objectives of the members through common dialogue and representation. NATHEALTH, in association with FICCI, will formulate joint representations on behalf of the members on matters relating to the successful implementation of government’s program under National Health Mission including AB-PMJAY,” said Dr H Sudarshan Ballal, President, NATHEALTH.  

Capacity building in Tier II & III cities is a priority for the government and the industry is committed to extending all its support. FICCI and NATHEALTH will work together in recommending reference cost structure for building and operating hospitals in non-metro locations and suggesting models for revenue and costing that meets the ‘inclusive healthcare’ objective of the government.

Dr Lal added that “while we would work towards capacity creation in smaller cities and recommend locations that are best suited for the government to initiate public-private partnerships, we will also explore sustainable PPP/philanthropic/CSR models for efficient running of the 150,000 HWCs under Ayushman Bharat for imparting quality primary healthcare, control of NCDs and availability of high-quality diagnostics”.