He supported the demand of the chairman of Finance Commission NK Singh who recently suggested the government set up DFI in healthcare.

The Parliament has recently passed the DFI in infrastructure bill for supporting long-term infra projects. On Friday, the Chairman of the Finance Commission, NK Singh has suggested setting up the DFI for healthcare on similar lines as the recent development of DFI for infrastructure. Vice-chairman of GVK, GV Sanjay Reddy welcomed suggestions made by NK Singh while commenting on enhancing the healthcare capabilities of the nation.

At the NATHEALTH Annual Summit, NK Singh said, “The health sector is in dire need of a health developmental financial institution (DFI). Budget 2021-22 mentioned setting up a DFI to stimulate investments with an initial corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.” He also said that the DFI for healthcare is as important as DFIs in other sectors such as agriculture (NABARD), tourism (TFCI), and housing (NHB) amongst others, as it will strengthen healthcare facilities in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

GV Sanjay Reddy said, “We at GVK EMRI, are not-for-profit emergency services in the healthcare sector for decades now and I can endorse that public healthcare in India is facing a severe cash crunch. As Mr NK Singh has suggested, setting up a DFI in healthcare is the most viable option available today for enhancing the nation’s healthcare facilities. The government has done it for the infrastructure which is very welcome, now healthcare is calling for it.”

He has recently called DFI in infrastructure groundbreaking that will revolutionize the booming sector. He said that the DFI “will eliminate all the blockades that are there while allocating funds for the creation and development of infrastructure.” GV Sanjay Reddy is an important stakeholder in the sector as his not-for-profit organisation —GVK EMRI has been serving the public in many states in India in a unique PPP model.

GVK EMRI, due to its state-of-the-art infrastructure, has proved to be a boon in one of the most difficult times of the twenty-first century since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. It is reported that the emergency ambulance services of the GVK EMRI have transferred over 2.5 lakh people with COVID-19 symptoms at an average of 3,336 patients every day till 31 May 2020 and around 1,400 per day since then.

“We have been providing emergency services in the healthcare sector since 2005 and have slowly created a deep-rooted infrastructure in all the 16 states and two UTs. It is because of the wonderful cooperation and assistance from the state governments that we were able to achieve such a milestone to such an extent that our services were ready and able, to assist the nation in tackling this pandemic hand-in-hand with the government infrastructure.”

Other than establishing the gigantic GVK EMRI infrastructure across the nation to become one of the world’s largest ambulatory care providers, it is on the way to becoming one of the smartest services by incorporating digitisation and automation. GV Sanjay Reddy suggested that the healthcare system needs heavy investments for not only the creation of new infrastructure but also for the updating of the already existing age-old complex system.

“Such a huge investment can only be availed by setting up of a DFI as it will feed all the necessary funds requirement along with enabling the optimum use of funds available. Moreover, it will also endorse the dedication of the government towards enhancing the health sector that is clearly reflected in the Union Budget FY2021-22,” added GV Sanjay Reddy.