GE Healthcare has over 150 public-private-partnerships (PPP) in India. “This Managed Equipment Services (MES) illustrates what can be done at scale to shift from a system of procurement of healthcare equipment that was kind of obsolete because it did not satisfy the requirements that are essential to delivering service to patients in the long term with the highest level of equality and access,” GE Healthcare’s Global President and Chief Executive Officer Kieran Murphy, told an Indian journal in February 2019.

“PPPs combine the social objectives of universal healthcare and business objective of running a profitable healthcare facility. They drive positive health outcomes at-scale, focus on access to quality healthcare and enhanced customer experience, but at rates which are significantly less than private diagnostic centers.”

“Our entire affordable care innovations from India are today driving healthcare access to millions of people in far corners of the country, and in markets like ASEAN and Africa. Similarly, our Oncology care area solutions is driving early detection, bringing cancer care closer to people in India. That’s why we highly regard the India model, and if it works, could be a model for the future.”

The home-made CT scan, for example, is made for smaller spaces, consumes 47 per cent less electricity and is 40 per cent more affordable than a previous generation product. While this is used locally and abroad, the locally-made portable ultra-sound machine is not sold here because of provisions in the law. It is shipped to other countries.  GE Healthcare revolutionary portable ECG machine, developed in India, was launched in 2009. As the $20 billion healthcare company stands poised to become a standalone business next year, Murphy says, India will continue to play an important role because, among other things, it houses the largest research and development centre (in Bangalore) where a lot of product innovation takes place.