Public–private partnerships (PPP) are being touted as the way forward for health care in the country as demonstrated by the draft chapter of the 12th Five-year Plan for health. The planning commission refers to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, Raichur, as ‘evidence’ of ‘good’ PPP without mentioning the multiple problems identified in this model, as documented in an evaluation report by the Government of Karnataka. The concerns raised by the evaluation team and the failure of the Planning Commission to take cognizance of these concerns are discussed in some detail in this article. Some of the issues identified with the PPP model of health care in Raichur are the absence of third-party evaluation, poor utilisation rates, lack of measurable benefit to the BPL population and poor governance and accountability systems.