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AdvancingprimaryhealthOUTPAtient heALthCARE PROGRAMME,GujARAt & OdhishaICICI Foundation believes that good health is crucial for inclusive growth.Proper healthcare and nutrition from childhood ensures that individualsbecome productive members of society. The Foundation’s work in healthfocuses on strengthening public health delivery systems which will improveaccess to healthcare for some of the poorest communities across India.We focus here on two developments this year in our work in the field ofprimary health. First, we have deepened our intervention in the OutpatientHealthcare Programme with 676,535 beneficiary enrolments and second,we signed a new MoU with the Government of Rajasthan to work onStrengthening Convergent Action for Reducing Child Undernutrition, inBaran district, Rajasthan.per month. This includes doctor’s consultations fees and thecost of diagnostics and medicines. 1Progress at a glanceAt Puri, more than40 public and privatehealthcare providersare participating in thepilot programme whileat Mehsana more than100 providers have beenempanelled including allcommunity health centresand primary health centresin the district.As of December 2012,Puri has seen morethan 65,000 claims andMehsana has loggedmore than 30,000 claims.Encouraged by theresponse, it has now beendecided to extend the pilotprogramme by one moreyear in both the districts.Recent improvements in health indicators and thedevelopment of the health sector in India are a result of supplyand demand side interventions initiated by the Governmentof India in the last decade. The focus of these interventionshas been to improve access to healthcare for all households,especially in rural and remote areas. In 2008, the Governmentof India introduced Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) toreduce the burden of healthcare spending for BPL populationand members of the unorganised workforce. RSBY aims tofinancially empower people to be able to choose and utilisehospital facilities in their area.While inpatient healthcare is expensive and therefore acrucial area for government intervention, recent studies haveindicated that outpatient healthcare too puts a significantfinancial burden on families. Outpatient healthcare spendingin India is very high; it is estimated that an individual in needof medical assistance in India spends on an average, ` 257 inrural areas and ` 306 in urban areas on outpatient healthcareNow, through the RSBY platform, International LabourOrganisation (ILO) and ICICI Foundation are experimenting withnew mechanisms to provide outpatient healthcare to the poor.In June 2011, a pilot Outpatient (OP) Healthcare Programmefor the poor was implemented in two districts in India - Puridistrict in Odisha and Mehsana district in Gujarat - with thefollowing objectives:• To improve health seeking behaviour among theBPL population• To improve access to quality healthcare for theBPL population• To reduce out of pocket expenses for quality healthcareIn line with the philosophy of ICICI Foundation, the pilotprogramme is being implemented in partnership with Centraland State Governments and ICICI Lombard is the implementingpartner.36 37