There are 25,020 (as of March 2014) PHCs in India which act as the first link between the community and the public health
system providing curative, preventive and promotive health care. In spite of mammoth efforts in rapid upgradation of PHCs
under NRHM, there are still a lot of challenges in the effective functioning of the PHCs spread across rural parts of India.
While non-availability of doctors and other trained staff at PHCs seem to be the most important factor, inadequate physical infrastructure and facilities, insufficient quantities of drugs and lack of good rapport with community are few other factors.

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To address the growing needs of primary health system and to effectively manage these challenges, the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model is in practice at many State levels and it has proved to be a very effective and efficient strategy in the health sector reforms. The over-riding objective of this PPP policy is to utilize the technical, financial and managerial resources available in the private sector, for strengthening the quality of services being provided through the public health care system. Hence, to revitalize the PHCs, there is a need currently to put in efforts from the private partners to complement the public system’s efforts, to deliver quality health services.