Yet another connection was established between India & UK healthcare sector during the visit of Consul General Dr. Aman Puri to Birmingham Women’s & Children’s NHS Trust on 12th July, 2018. Discussion on professional exchange programmes and delivery of education and training for healthcare professionals between India and UK was highlighted. The visit also focused on implementation of the healthcare partnership between India and UK which was discussed during the recent visit of Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi to UK. Dr. Shashi Baliyan, Head Clear Medi group India, who has extensive experience of working with NHS also joined the tour. He gave a detailed insight on how Healthcare in India and UK can work together on various projects.
Consul General, Dr. Aman Puri spoke about the world’s largest government funded health care programme, National Healthcare protection scheme, covering 500 million people, providing a health insurance for approx. 1,100 Pounds per year, and the premium to be paid by the government. He mentioned that the collaboration between India and UK in the field of Health care has been growing exponentially in the last few years and emphasized the need to connect the relevant stakeholders from both the countries to further strengthen the ongoing cooperation. He highlighted the facilities available in the UK’s NHS system and remarked that it would be beneficial for Indian healthcare providers to work with their UK counterparts. He also added that India’s innovative and top quality healthcare providers have developed processes and systems that could be applied in NHS.
Sir Bruce Keogh, Chairman of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, former NHS England National Medical Director, expressed his willingness to work together in building the partnership between Britain and India. He was extremely hopeful that the established relationship between India and UK in the fields of new research, shared expertise and attention to ground-breaking technologies, will further nurture and both nations could flourish in leading the world in healthcare and could learn from each other.
Sarah Jane Marsh, Chief Executive Officer Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Chair of the NHS England Maternity Transformation Programme Board said that UK healthcare education and training sector is very well placed to work with India to meet the challenges of developing the healthcare workforce for the future in both the state and private sectors.
Dr. Satish Rao, Deputy Medical Director, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust facilitated Consul General for the tour of both the Women’s and Children’s hospital. Dr. Puri admired the facilities and focused on how India and UK could collaborate for mutual benefit and what NHS could offer.
During the discussions with Mr. Khalid Sharif, Transplant Surgeon and Dr. Ashish Chikermane, lead of Cardiology department on Potential Healthcare collaborations between India and UK, Dr. Puri mentioned that the various projects in India provide huge global export market for the UK healthcare and life sciences sector. He particularly mentioned that as one of the fastest developing economies in the world, with over 1 billion people, India is fast becoming a vast market for UK health services and technology.
He later interacted with Dr. Niti Pall, Director (Non Executive) and deputy chief nurses on exchange of ideas in advanced medical research and development, training and education of doctors and nurses in both countries, state of the art training facilities and extensive technology and innovation links.
The Indian and UK governments have set up an implementation taskforce to ensure closer collaboration and speedy implementation of several healthcare projects. These kinds of visits aim to bring the UK’s
