UK group signs healthcare MoU with Indian company

A health care group based in northeast England today said it had signed an MoU with a leading Indian health care provider to share expertise in integrated medical care.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Northumberland County Council (Northumbria) signed the MoU with Indo-UK Healthcare Pvt Ltd (IUHP) in support of the Indo-UK Institute of Health (IUIH) programme.
The IUIH programme is one of the world's largest health care initiatives currently underway, aimed at transforming the provision of quality healthcare and medical education services across India.
It will deliver a staged rollout linked to the Indian government'sSmart City programme across 100 cities and will involve the setting up of 11 Indo UK Institute of Health Medicities along with 89 Indo UK Clinics across the 100 smart cities.

The agreement between Northumbria andIUHPwill see the sharing of NHS expertise, working alongside a small number of other NHS Foundation Trusts who began working with IUHPin 2015 to support the delivery of hospital services in the first of the 11 states in India.
Daljit Lally, the deputy chief executive of Northumberland County Council, who has a formal joint role with both the council and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said "India has one of the largest populations in the world so the pressures on its healthcare system are enormous".

"Whilst our primary goal is to share how we have developed such a pioneering approach to delivering integrated care in Northumberland, I have no doubt that we will also learn a great deal which will benefit the NHS," he said.

Healthcare UK, which was instrumental in creating the partnership between Northumbria andIUHP, also welcomed the tie-up.
"The NHS and social care system in Northumberland delivers superb care to hundreds of thousands of people across one of the largest and most rural areas in England. This makes it a unique fit for this venture with India," said Deborah Kobewka, managing director of Healthcare UK.
The IUIH hospitals are to be supported by a new model of community care clinics across India, based on the UK model.