In the first leg of Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s visit abroad, as far as the health sector is concerned, the team from Tamil Nadu seems to have marked up substantial gains for the State, going only by the merit of agreements signed. A swathe of health sector interventions have been envisaged to improve healthcare and parameters of the Human Development Index.
Among the key tie-ups are those with International Skills Development Corporation for skilling the health work force, primarily nurses and doctors. The team from ISDC had already visited training schools in Chennai and was satisfied with the infrastructure even before the Chief Minister’s team left for London, officials said. There is also a proposal to recruit the trained nurses from the State, after they go through their specialised training courses, to work for the NHS in the U.K.
The tie up with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is another agreement that the team, led by Mr. Palaniswami, seems to be chuffed about. Tamil Nadu’s health officials say they hope to harness the famous school’s expertise in vector borne disease control, particularly in the area of malaria and dengue control.
Mode of investment?
The school has apparently about 300 researchers working on malaria, and the association could possibly lead the State closer to eradicating malarial disease. The collaboration will also involve sharing best practices in community healthcare, and a special component for mental healthcare. The King’s College Hospital, London, will establish a flagship hospital in Tamil Nadu that the government will facilitate.
Apparently, the Hospital has long been scouting for a State in India to set up its unit. As far as investments go, the actual mode of investment is not yet clear, but sources say there will be multiple sources investing in the hospital.
Additional tie-ups have been established for looking at improving ambulance care services in the State, currently run by the 108 emergency ambulance service. The idea is to learn how to finetune emergency responses, call centre interactions and cut down on unnecessary deaths through accidents, officials said. The team which has conducted talks with the UK and the National Health Services officials included Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh, and other senior officers, including M. Saikumar, S. Vijayakumar and P. Senthil Kumar.
Further collaborations have been envisaged in the area of maternal and child healthcare, organ transplantations and state-of-the-art neurology treatments. Tamil Nadu, which is already making significant advances towards reducing Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate, will benefit from ante and post natal care practices in the UK.
Officials said King’s College, London (Not King’s College Hospital), which has two hospitals under its ambit, has also shown some interest in collaborations with the Tamil Nadu government, and has presented a memorandum of understanding.
