Mohali, November 7
Former Health Minister of Punjab and senior Congress leader Balbir Singh Sidhu has strongly opposed the state government’s move to hand over government hospitals to private companies. He said that the Bhagwant Mann government, which once promised to provide quality healthcare to people through ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’, has now chosen an anti-people path by handing over the well-established infrastructure of the Health Department to private entities.
Sidhu said that in the first phase, the Aam Aadmi Party government has already completed the process of transferring hospitals in Rajpura, Moga, Ferozepur and Moonak to private hands. He warned that gradually, all government hospitals in the state would be handed over to private companies. He added that this decision will deprive the poor sections of society of even the minimal healthcare facilities currently available at government hospitals. “These hospitals will eventually become accessible only to the rich, just like other private hospitals already operating in the state,” he said, adding that private companies will not implement any of the central or state government health schemes in these hospitals.
The Congress leader further stated that the Bhagwant Mann government had started the privatization process earlier by allowing private laboratories to operate inside government hospitals. Later, instead of recruiting specialist doctors directly, the government introduced a policy allowing private practitioners to attend patients in government hospitals. “Now, by handing over entire hospitals to private companies, the government has completely abandoned its responsibility and promise to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the people,” he remarked.
Sidhu dismissed the Health Minister’s claim that services in these privatized hospitals would remain the same as before. Citing an example, he said, “During the Akali government’s tenure, land in Mohali and Bathinda was given to the Max company at throwaway prices on the condition that affordable healthcare would be provided to the public — but that turned out to be a complete fraud. The AAP government’s claim will meet the same fate.” He also pointed out that if the land in Mohali had not been handed over to Max Hospital, the government would not have struggled to find land for the proposed government medical college there.
Sidhu further said that despite the AAP government’s tall claim of building 16 new medical colleges in Punjab, nearly four years have passed and not a single college has become functional. The proposed medical colleges in Sangrur and Nawan Shahr, he added, are also planned to be built under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model in collaboration with private companies.
Concluding his remarks, Sidhu said, “The Aam Aadmi Party government has already ruined Punjab’s economy, and now it is selling off the state’s basic infrastructure. This will only lead to further destruction of Punjab and its people.”
