The government is reviewing the Public-Private Partnership for Free General Practitioners Scheme to determine its effectiveness.

This was revealed by Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad during a budget consultation, as General Practitioner Dr Atinesh Prakash, called on the government to review and expand the scheme to allow more GPs to join the list.

Prakash believes that by doing this, people living in rural areas and those with lower socioeconomic levels will also benefit.

Dr Prakash says the public-private partnership was introduced to reduce the load on public hospitals, but he believes this is not happening.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that this is happening because the same people are going to the same GPs they were going to previously.”

Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad says they intend to ensure that the scheme does not affect the services at public hospitals.

“Because I think that’s what’s happening. You are right; some people who were going there anyway are still going there because it’s free now.”

Dr Prakash also raised concerns regarding the CT scan services being outsourced to general practitioners or private hospital settings.

However, the Finance Minister says that Dr. Prakash has given a good example of the stupidity that can be seen in some of the resource allocations.

Professor Prasad says the review of PPP will enable them to improve the scheme if they want to continue.

The GPs were engaged as part of a new scheme developed by the previous government in 2021 to improve access to medical services during the pandemic.