EMRI model - Indiagovernance.gov.in

Study of Emergency Response Service (EMRI Scheme)k. The members of the registered society are said to have brought in Rs 34 crores when itwas formed. It was with this amount that EMRI funded the first 70 ambulances andagreed to pay 50% of the operating costs in Andhra for the first year of the partnershipwith the government of Andhra Pradesh. This sum of Rs 34 crores was used up in thefirst years. Then EMRI raised Rs 40 crores as loans for further investments for its officesand training complex at Hyderabad and to meet leadership costs. The board under ShriRaju had promised a further 108 crores, which would have paid back the loan and takencare of the leadership costs, but this is now ruled out. The effort of the CEO is to findsponsors who would be willing to bring in capital to repay the loans and meet theleadership costs and allow such a sponsor to take over the society, whereby, either anumber of persons bringing in Rs 2 crores each or one large sponsor brings in 40 to 50crores. But while searching for new sponsors, EMRI needs to avoid large hospital chainswhich would have a potential conflict of interests. Potentially a large hospital chain wouldbe more interested in drawing patients into their underutilised hospital capacity thanproviding an universal ERS. The funds/sponsors would also need to have legitimate andreputable sources. The new sponsors would need to deal with Satyam whose name stillappears on every ambulance as technology sponsor and persuade Satyam to part withthe technology and the intellectual property rights over it. And finally new sponsorswould have to be able to ensure that current society members are all phased out withoutfurther costs and trouble. Clearly achieving all this is a large order, but the CEO and histeam seemed to be cautiously optimistic of being able to do all this and that too within amonth or two.Commenting on the above two observations EMRI has stated in response, “EMRI hasalready come out of the crisis post January 2009 developments. EMRI has continued toprovide same level of service in all the nine states. The new donor has been finalizedand formal announcement is expected shortly”.l. How does one define the relationship between the government and the EMRI? If thedefinition of partnership is a relationship where both partners share in the resources,rewards and risks, this would not qualify as partnership. EMRI has brought in nofinancial or material resources after the pilot stage. EMRI bears no risks. Whatever bethe efficiency, the government is committed to paying for it. It has a limited share of thebenefits in that it provides high value employment to its key personnel, though perhaps ithas considerable social contribution and social recognition, and these were their greatersource of inspiration. However it could be argued that the intellectual resources of thesekey personnel are of a very high order and this alone would merit such an arrangement.In essence, rather than being a partnership, it is now more of a management contractgiven to a not for profit body constituted purely for this single purpose.National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC)35