Bilateral talks between India and the UK in 2015 mean India could see an influx of more than £1 billion (about ₹10,000 crore) of private investment in India’s healthcare sector.

While the partnership, under which about 11 Indo-UK Institutes of Health are to be set up that will provide training to doctors, nurses and allied medical staff; harsh visa restrictions by the UK may prove to be an impediment.

Malcolm Grant, Chairman of the NHS England, who is leading a delegation of 23 British companies and NHS Trusts looking to provide services in India, however, hoped ‘political’ visa issues won’t get in the way of doctors going to the UK. According to studies, more than 25 per cent of the doctors in the UK are not British and about seven per cent of consultants are of Indian origin. Grant tells BusinessLine that migration of qualified staff is central for the UK’s health system. Edited excerpts:

Can you tell us the nature of the Indo-UK partnership and about the proposed institutes?

There are already a lot of partnerships going on between India and the UK. It is part of our history. What we are trying to do is work alongside the Indian government and the State governments for what is a common vision — providing universal healthcare on an affordable basis. This requires investments in hospitals; this is where the Indo-UK institutes will be focusing their attention, and also in primary health. A part of the proposal will be a number of polyclinics, which will have a hub-and-spoke model and will reach out to remote communities, particularly through technologies such as telemedicine to be able to give early and more convenient access to healthcare.

We’ve been trying increasingly to keep people out of hospitals because admission to hospitals is an admission to failure.

We are also doing work on data analytics, electronic records, diabetes care, and lots of partnerships on clinical and surgical front.

You had meetings with high-level government officials. What was the outcome?

It was very interesting because it was a meeting not just with the Health Secretary and the team but also with some officials of the different States. A

nd this was important because so much of the health responsibilities are with the States and it was important to get a sense of the direction they intend and the level of interest in what we were doing.

It was very encouraging. A number of them have come to the point where they are in the process of agreeing to give land. I came away with the impression that this had started to take grip.

There would be some involvement in the government’s smart cities plans. Can you give us details?

If you have a chance to design a city from scratch you have to consider health right from the beginning because the trademark of a successful city is its health as it drives the economy. We need to find new approaches to everything from infrastructure and sanitation, to traffic management and pollution reduction using the resources of the 21{+s}{+t} century. For example, low-cost, high-powered sensors on the street, driverless cars, and an urban environment that helps promote health.

What would be the extent of the collaboration in research and training?

In terms of training of staff, which is a really important area for us, we will be looking not just at doctors but also nurses and allied health professionals. Some of the big hospitals are very interested in mutuality of nursing training — so nursing staff can go to the UK and get a postgraduate training.

Further, more than 50,000 physicians of Indian origin are working in the UK.

Do you think visa restrictions, new migrant salary rules and the contractual problems with junior doctors in the NHS could become a discouragement for Indian doctors to go to the UK?

I don’t think so and I hope not. For the junior doctors, it has been a very uncomfortable dispute. I am optimistic that it is now being resolved. I think when this ends, the training environment for junior doctors will be seen for what it is, which is very good. I have to say the dispute has brought to my attention some areas of weakness in our training, which we need to look at.

The other thing is visas. It has been very difficult and it has been a highly politicised issue. The NHS workforce, which is about 1.3 million, has about 150,000 employees who are EU migrants besides other countries. Migration, from across the world, is central for us. The UK has been a great importer of talent for many years. And it goes both ways.

I think people want to come to work for what is one of the greatest health systems in the world.

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