A workshop titled “Expanding Public health Services through PPP” was organized by the PPP Office in a city hotel on 12 March 2015 with support from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The seminar aimed to create awareness on the scope of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in public health services and highlight recent developments and achievements of the government in PPP health services. Mr. Md. Abul Kalam Azad, Principal Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office was the Chief Guest of the event and Syed Monjurul Islam, Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare was present as the Special Guest. Prof. Dr. Deen Mohammad Noorul Huq, Director General of DGHS acted as the chairperson for the workshop sessions. Mr. Syed Afsor H. Uddin, CEO of PPP Office was also present at the event.

In the inaugural session Mr. Azad shared the government’s vision on PPP and underlined the key scope and opportunities of PPP in health care sector. He mentioned “the present government is keen to promot PPP in the country and is moving forward in delivering more public services through PPP.” Referring to his previous experience in Ministry of Health, he pointed the strategic fit of PPP in delivering public health services especially for clinical and logistic services like radiology and ambulance services. Mr. Monjurul Islam highlighted the key health services provided by the government and role of PPP in delivering efficiency in public health services. He also emphasized on effective utilization of government’s assets through PPP model. With the success for PPP Haemo Dialysis centers NIKDU and CMCH, he emphasized for taking more PPPs in health care sector. In his speech, Mr. Noorul Huq highlighted the coverage of health services provided by DGHS and mentioned that PPP model would enable DGHS to provide further outreach in effective delivering of its services to general people. He also appreciated role of PPP Office in promoting PPP in health services.

In the presentation session, Dr. Shawapan Kumar Topadar, of DGHS provided a brief overview on the extent of demand for health services in Bangladesh and existing health services coverage by government through DGHS. He highlighted the service delivery gaps and pointed the potential roles of private sector in meeting those gaps. From the PPP Office, Mr. Uddin presented the global context of PPP and background of the PPP program being launched in the country. He presented the success and achievements of PPP program in Bangladesh and also highlighted the key roles of line ministries and implementing agencies in promoting PPP projects in their respective sectors. Following the presentation from the PPP Office, Mr. Dhawal Jhamb, Investment Officer from International Finance Corporation (IFC) provided a presentation on Dialysis PPP project which was awarded to the private sector in early 2015. In the presentation Mr. Jhamb presented the brief scope of the project, roles and responsibilities of the government and private sector operator and other contractual arrangements as provided in the concession agreement.

After the presentation session, a case study session was conducted during the workshop where successful case studies were presented by the representatives from General Electric (GE), PricewaterhousseCoopers (PwC) and IFC. Mr. Parag Vershney, GM of GE shared their experience as operator in specialized equipment based health service PPPs in India. Dr. Rana Mehta, Executive Director from PwC presented cases studies on Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre of Canada and Albert Luthuli Hospital of South Africa as part of their experience in health infrastructure management PPPs. Finally Dr. Dhawal Jhamb presented a case study on Lesetho health PPP where IFC provided transaction advisory services.

Following the case studies, a question and answer session was held where the participants raised various queries related to the presentations provided by the speakers. The relevant speakers addressed those queries and provided further clarification.

Finally a brainstorming and discussion session was conducted with the participation from representatives of various agencies under DGHS. Dr. Jhamb of IFC facilitated the session with support from the workshop speakers. The session aimed to identify potential PPP projects in the health sector that could be further developed by the relevant agencies and could potentially be proposed to PPP Office. After a detailed and thorough discussion, the following projects were identified:

1. Ambulance Services under PPP
2. Diagnostic Centres including Radiology Imaging Lab
3. Medical Equipment supply and operate at various government hospitals 
4. ICU/Emergency medical services through PPP in existing government hospitals
5. Social Insurance

It was agreed that DGHS would discuss these projects with relevant agencies and would propose the most suitable projects as PPP.

In concluding the seminar, the participants expressed their appreciation to DGHS and PPP Office for organizing this capacity building workshop and requested that further session should be organized on a periodic basis.