Anna Soubry, British Minister for Health, said here on Thursday that her country, including its colleges and universities, was open for business with India, and would look at establishing mutually beneficial partnerships.
Ms. Soubry was speaking at a joint meeting of health sector representatives from the UK and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Irrespective of what has happened in the past, we want a new relationship as equal partners, Ms. Soubry told the gathering.
Learning opportunity
She said that it was a real opportunity for her team to learn from what is happening in the health care industry in India. She expressed the hope that India could learn something from Britain too.
While the National Health System was free at the point of delivery and paid for by taxation, the Indian health system had evolved differently.
Mike Nithavrianakis, British Deputy High Commissioner, said that a number of commercial, educational, and research partnerships had been established between the two nations.
There were a number of opportunities for medical equipment firms who had travelled down.
R.Chandrakumar, co-chairman, health care sub committee, CII Southern Region, said that the health care industry was the fastest growing and biggest employer. In India, it constituted five per cent of the GDP.
Later, Ms. Soubry inaugurated a Paediatric Diabetes Unit at Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre.
“Until recently, type 1 diabetes accounted for the majority of paediatric diabetes cases. However, with lifestyle changes, type 2 diabetes has now become the major type of paediatric diabetes at our centres. Thus, we felt the need to open a separate paediatric diabetes unit,” according to V. Mohan of DMDSC.
Kalpana Thai, paediatric diabetologist, at the Centre, said there was a support group for children with diabetes that met on the second Saturday of every month.
