CM defends PPP model

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu strongly defended the state plan to build new medical colleges under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model on Tuesday, saying the move will speed up delivery, improve the quality of healthcare and medical education, and save about Rs 3,700 crore to the state exchequer compared with the earlier plan. He told the Assembly that if the previous government’s model had been followed, the colleges would take another 15 years to come up.

Naidu accused the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) of spreading false propaganda against the PPP model. He said the PPP model is widely used across India, citing recent college projects in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, and noted that even premier institutions like IITs are expanding through public-private partnerships.

According to the Chief Minister, PPP will bring modern facilities, advanced medical technology, better operational efficiency and greater use of tech such as AI diagnostics, telemedicine and digital health records. He said expertise would improve through access to private partners and stressed that the colleges would not be privatised, but they will be handed to the government after 33 years.

As part of the PPP rollout, Naidu said a 100-bed hospital will be established in each Assembly constituency.

He also explained how patient access will be protected. According to him, 70 per cent of IPD beds in PPP-run college hospitals will be reserved for patients under the NTR Vaidya Seva and Ayushman Bharat–PMJAY schemes while the remaining 30 per cent will be available for paying patients. OPD and IPD drugs and diagnostics, he added, will be provided free to beneficiaries under the coverage the government proposes.

On student seats, Naidu said the PPP model will expand opportunities. He claimed the PPP approach will yield 11 more seats per college compared with the previous model proposed by the former government. Under the PPP plan, he said 50 per cent of seats (75 seats) in each new college will be available to poor students via the convener quota; under the earlier proposal, only 42 per cent (64 seats) would have been open to them. Overall, Naidu said, in the colleges planned under PPP, AP students would gain an additional 110 convener quota seats each year.

Naidu contrasted his government’s pace of funding with that of the previous administration. He said the 17 new medical colleges sanctioned in 2020-21 with an estimated cost of Rs 8,486 crore but the previous government released only Rs 1,566.36 crore, roughly 18.2 per cent, over four years. Citing the NDA government’s action, he said Rs 786.82 crore was allocated for these colleges in 2024 and that 16 medical colleges are now proposed under PPP for rapid execution and better quality of care.

On health insurance and the state safety net, the Chief Minister explained the move from Arogyasri to a proposed Universal Health Insurance scheme aimed at achieving ‘Arogya Andhra’. Under the new design, BPL families will get cover up to Rs 25 lakh and APL families up to Rs 2.5 lakh, he said. The scheme, he added, will cover about 1.63 crore families and provide treatment for 3,257 types of procedures across 2,493 empanelled hospitals. Naidu said the plan includes seamless integration of health data from public and private facilities.