By Geeta
The Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC) which has been sold in an all-cash deal to the Ranbaxy-controlled Fortis Healthcare was valued at Rs 650 crore. The 90 per cent sale of this premier hospital has fetched Rs 585 crore for Rajan Nanda of Escorts and will bail him out of a severe financial crisis which his flagship company is facing. On the face of it, there is nothing unusual about the Escorts-Fortis deal. It is like any other corporate buyout to which Indian businessmen are quite used to. However, a question of public probity and inability of the Delhi Government to do any thing about it is involved. In fact, there are more questions than one: How was the Escorts Hospital promoted? At what price was the land in a premier location given to a corporate house?; and whether a ?charitable?? institution,especially in the health sector should be converted into a full-fledged business even if the promoters had paid the differentials in the land prices.
Do we want hospitals in the State sector or do we want to treat them like any other business to be run by entrepreneurs for whom the sole aim is to make a buck; or rather a fast buck.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a recent function in Delhi had said that the health sector would continue to be dominated by the State sector for many more decades as a large percentage of our population has no resources to pay for expensive five-star healthcare. The intentions sound noble but the hard reality is different. We see the shares of hospital companies doing exceedingly well in the stock market. Proposals to build so-called super-speciality hospitals in the private sector get priority both from the Centre and the State governments. Another case in point is a Rs 1000-crore hospital project approved by the Haryana government in Gurgaon being promoted by the operational head of Escorts Hospital and the capital'sP-3 personality Naresh Trehan. Let there be a clarity in Government policy. Do we want hospitals in the State sector or do we want to treat them like any other business to be run by entrepreneurs for whom the sole aim is to make a buck; or rather a fast buck. We recently had a case in Delhi of a Kargil war hero being refused timely treatment by a private hospital in west Delhi when he went there bleeding after being stabbed by a robber. The brave soldier bled to death and the Police did not even register a case against the money-spinning hospital. Even if healthcare is allowed in the private sector, should there not be some ground-rules. Should we not have a fair and well-empowered regulator then? The Indian Medical Council does not really know its functions and has lost sight of the objectives it was meant to fulfill. Let'sget back to the Escorts deal. The Nandas had promoted it as a chartiable institution and obviously received all the concessions iet back to the Escorts deal. The Nandas had promoted it as a chartiable institution and obviously received all the concessionsetet back to the Escorts deal. The Nandas had promoted it as a chartiable institution and obviously received all the concessions iet back to the Escorts deal. The Nandas had promoted it as a chartiable institution and obviously received all the concessionet et back to the Escorts deal. The Nandas had promoted it as a chartiable institution and obviously received all the concessions iven a new business model: promote a charitable institution receive all the goodies from the Government; convert it into a corporate business and then sell at a fat price. Pocket all the gains and get prominence in the Pink newspapers! Government will turn its eye off these corporate deals. There would be mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector even while patients in government hospitals would be lying on the floors, getting sub-standard treatment. On the one hand we hear the Prime Minister talk about public health receiving his priority; on the other hand we hear Health Minister A Ramdoss talking to corporate honchos about promoting medical tourism: Flying foreign patients straight to these topline medical centres. The poor and middle classes who cannot afford treatment can continue to wait for the healhtcare which will be available more in the Common Minimum Programmes of political parties.
