Kolkata, Oct 14 (IANS) The West Bengal government will set up Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras (PMBJKs) under the public-private partnership (PPP) model at 16 state-run medical colleges and hospitals to provide quality medicines to patients at affordable prices.
Sources in the State Health and Family Welfare Department said the decision to adopt the PPP model was aimed at ensuring the efficient operation and proper maintenance of the centres, apart from making medicines available to patients at lower prices.
“Besides setting up and running these PMBJKs, proper maintenance of the centres is another important consideration. This is also one of the reasons behind the decision to adopt the PPP model,” a Health and Family Welfare Department official said.
The tendering process to select private organisations for setting up and operating the centres has already begun, the official said.
“Instructions have been issued to complete the tendering process quickly and select private organisations that meet the prescribed standards so that the centres can be launched at the earliest,” the official added.
In the first phase, the 16 PMBJKs will be established at medical colleges and hospitals across the state, including 11 in Kolkata. The remaining five centres will come up at one medical college and hospital each in Nadia, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, West Midnapore and Howrah districts, according to the department.
It is learnt that several other state governments have adopted the PMBJK model in the past, while the previous Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal did not take any initiative to introduce the scheme in state-run medical colleges and hospitals.
Sources at the state secretariat, Nabanna, said the process of involving the state government in various welfare initiatives of the Union government had gathered pace after the new government assumed office under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
The decision to establish Janaushadhi Kendras at state-run medical colleges and hospitals is part of that broader exercise, the sources added.
–IANS
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