The Hindu Business Line : Manipal Healthcare to ink pact with 4Ways of UK

STARTING early next year, doctors from the Manipal Healthcare will travel more than 7,000 km to perform a cataract surgery or a knee replacement procedure or even a MRI scan in the UK.

Manipal Healthcare is in the process of finalising a tie-up with the UK-based 4Ways Healthcare to perform `certain procedures' that have been thrown open to private providers by the National Health Services, UK.

Speaking to Business Line, Dr Ramdas M. Pai, President, Manipal Education and Medical Group India Pvt Ltd, said that the NHS, UK, was so far outsourcing doctors from Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. "But now they find that it's more economical to get Indian doctors who are as competitive."

Moreover, not many patients are willing to travel out of their place of residence for medical help, according to Dr Pai.

With this tie-up, doctors from Manipal Healthcare will be assigned to do packets of procedures for NHS patients right in their home country, ie. the UK.

According to Mr Rajen Padukone, CEO, Manipal Healthcare, this may not really affect the Rs 10,000-crore Indian medical tourism industry because the NHS regulations do not allow patients to travel beyond Europe to get medical treatment.

One of the main reasons for NHS to open up certain medical procedures to private parties is that there is a long waiting list for simple surgeries such as cataract (6 months) and hip and knee replacement (one year). Says Mr Padukone, "NHS has not been able to address this demand and so doctors from our system will be assigned to these tasks for a short period of time on a rotational basis."

As Dr Pai put it, "I support this kind of outsourcing for two reasons: one is that it proves that Indian doctors are highly talented and globally competitive and second it is a good opportunity for Indian doctors to enrich their experience."

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