ADB Provides USD 500 Million Loan for Maharashtra Healthcare

New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) The Government on Wednesday signed a loan package of USD 500 million with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to improve access to quality and affordable tertiary health care and medical education in Maharashtra.

The loan will establish four medical colleges attached with tertiary care teaching hospitals incorporating climate and disaster-resilient, gender-responsive, and socially inclusive features in under-served districts, ADB said in a statement.

The project will increase bed capacity in government tertiary care hospitals and envisages hiring of at least 500 new doctors for four new governmental medical colleges, the ADB said.

ADB is helping the state to create an enabling environment through policy actions for recruiting and retaining quality doctors and staff through performance-based incentives, formulate a new talent management policy, and establish India's first state-led health care and medical education centers of excellence.

The project also aims to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure of people by making available better quality of drugs.