EVENTS

Abstract

The traditional boundaries between the government and private sector have blurred in the health service system resulting in a number of public-private partnerships (PPP). PPP arrangements in health have increased during the period of economic reforms. Typically these partnerships consist of multiple actors that would include the public, for-profit and non-profit actors. In order to manage and administer new partnerships, newer institutional arrangements have been created.  In India, the health sector has witnessed collaborations with the private sector from the first five-year plan onwards. Over the last six decades these partnerships have evolved from simple to very complex forms. In the case of China, PPPs are a much more recent phenomenon restricted largely to the tertiary sector in health care. There is considerable plurality in these partnerships and majority are being implemented in a pilot mode. Based on primary evidence we present the contrast in the emergence of PPPs in China and India. 

About the Speaker

Rama V. Baru is a Professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her major areas of research interest include commercialisation of health services, infectious diseases, comparative health systems and health inequalities. She is the author of two books - Private Health Care in India: Social Characteristics and Trends and School Health Services in India: The Social and Economic Contexts. She has publications in journals and edited volumes.  She is on the Ethics Committee of the Medical Council of India and the Research Committee of the Revised National Tuberculosis Programme of the Ministry of Health, Government of India.

Madhurima Nundy is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi. She holds a PhD in Public Health from the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Before joining ICS she was Senior Programme Coordinator at the Public Health Resource Network and has been a Technical Consultant with the National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Her areas of interest include studying health service systems, health policies and health inequalities.