The Government of Bihar contracted with private providers Central Diagnostics & Sen Labs to provide clinical lab services in all health care facilities from primary health centers to district hospitals.
Lack of diagnostic facilities in rural hospitals was evident within Bihar's support services, and this program is intended to focus on providing better treatment. To accomplish this goal, the Government of Bihar has entered into various public private partnerships in the health sector.
Under the new policy, services in the Government hospitals are provided free to patients, although the necessary infrastructure is lacking. To provide better care, clinical lab services in all the health care facilities operated by State Health Societies were contracted to private providers who set up the necessary infrastructure in the space provided inside the health center. They are then paid charges as per rates fixed by State Health Society Bihar for the number of tests performed.
Clinical lab services including pathology, biochemistry, microbiology lab services are provided in all hospitals. Reporting is completed within 24 hours, and creating this lab infrastructure in remote villages as well as engaging pathologist, biochemist and other specialists was a challenge.
Central Diagnostics and Sen labs developed infrastructure using advanced equipment at central locations, and logistics were managed in order to receive samples from all the health centers within few hours. Monitoring is done by district health society and payments are made from districts. Delay in payments has been biggest concern of the private providers.
