India needs a better collaborative approach between the public and private sectors, along with more innovative solutions to improve healthcare delivery for problems ranging from malnutrition to lifestyle diseases in the country, experts said at a forum here.

The two-day forum on 'The future of healthcare improvement and innovation in India' was conducted in collaboration with the Monash Business School, Newcastle University Business School and IIM Ranchi, aimed to identify and discuss opportunities, and challenges faced by the healthcare sector.

"There is a need to improve the public health system and services being offered in rural areas. Through means of corporate social responsibility, the private sector needs to collaborate with the public sector. Corporate organisations need to take a long term view to understand the community and give back to society," Amrik Sohal, Professor at Monash University, Melbourne, said on Monday.

There is a huge gap in growth between the public and private sectors. Nearly 65 per cent of India's population belonging to the rural sector with poor access to public healthcare facilities, are forced to turn to private healthcare facilities despite the latter being costly and difficult to afford, experts said. 

Thus, the country needs to adopt an integrated framework for the provision of healthcare for the wider public. Education institutions like IIHMR play an important role in shaping students into professional managers of healthcare, they added.

"In India, services are either free or very costly. We need to come up with research models and find ways in which hospitals can reduce wasteful expenditures so that patients have to pay less for the services they avail," added Ashok K Agarwal, Officiating Director, Indian Institute of Health Management Research, Delhi.