Uttar Pradesh (UP) Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh has announced the UP administration’s plan of setting up 1000 hospitals under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model in the state, Financial Express has reported.

Under the model, existing community health centres will be leased out to private players who will construct and operate a 100-bed hospital at the site.

“We are in the process of identifying two community health centres in each district. Their land, about three acres each, will be given on a long-term lease to private company which will construct a 100-bed hospital, along with an operation theatre and diagnostic centre,” Singh said.

Leading consulting firm Ernst & Young has been roped in to prepare a detailed report for the project which will be a part of the central government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme.

The heath minister also said that a proper method to regulate transfers of doctors will be put in place to remedy the current erratic transfer process. The minister has proposed a basic minimum module (BMM) for filling medical posts in district hospitals which will ensure that certain posts are mandatorily present in all such hospitals.

Singh said that no transfers from hospitals will take place unless positions like ENT specialists, paediatricians, gynaecologists and orthopaedic surgeons are filled. Doctors will also be roped in on contractual basis to meet shortages in hospitals.