Philips India on Tuesday said it is set to increase to 36 the number of public-private partnership (PPP) healthcare centres across the states of Haryana and Jharkhand by early 2019.

According to the company, at present there were 10 operational PPP centres across Haryana and seven in Jharkhand.There were two PPP projects in diagnostic imaging in Haryana and Jharkhand that were run by Healthcare Diagnostic Private Limited, which is an SPV (special purpose vehicle) between Philips India and Manipal Health Enterprises."By 2019 -- in 18 months -- all the centres will be done. The PPPs are all about bringing private efficiency into the public domain," said Chhitiz Kumar, Head Government Affairs, PPP, and Healthcare Transformation Services, Philips India. He said: "You get services in-house faster, at lower prices and there is quality."

"One or two centres will be in Haryana. Majority will be in Jharkhand because we started out there only last year, of which seven centres are operational," added Kumar.The PPPs are currently operational in Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur, he added.The company informed that the first PPP was inked in mid-2015 with the Government of Haryana for providing radiology services (CT-scan and MRI) for eight centres -- four district hospitals and four medical college hospitals.Currently, in Haryana the PPP centres are in Rohtak, Gurugram, Panchkula, Mewat, Sonepat (village - Khanpur), Bhiwadi and Agroha. 

Four more centres were in the pipeline in Panipat, Kaithal, Jind and Kurukshetra.The Gurugram centre was the first PPP centre which went operational on August 17, 2015."The National Health Policy 2017, talks a lot about PPP which, to me, is a good starting point saying that healthcare challenges in India are enormous and the best way to deliver the right outcome for the masses is when the public healthcare system and the private can work together," said Kumar."A lot of efficiency can be brought in by getting in private interventions in the public healthcare domain," Kumar added.The company added that the second PPP was signed with the Government of Jharkhand for all 24 districts.The technology spans from basic radiology like ECG, X-ray, ultrasound to high-end CT-scans and MRI, it added.