India today assured Mauritius of all possible help in the health sector including upgrading its medical education facilities, setting up of a state of the art cancer unit and procurement of medical equipments.
Both the countries also decided to constitute a Joint Working Group (JWG) on health cooperation after Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Mauritius, Anil Kumar Singh Gayan held a bilateral meeting with Union Health Minister J P Nadda here today.
"Mauritius have requested for India's help in recruitment of doctors, upgradation of Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital, mutual recognition of medical degrees, assistance in upgrading medical education facilities, scholarships for trainings in speciality hospitals...
"...Setting up a state-of-the-art cancer unit and assistance in procurement of medical equipment. India has assured of all possible help," an official statement said.
During the meeting it was decided to constitute a JWG by Mauritius under the Memorandum of Understanding on health cooperation which was signed in 2013 so that specific details with road map could be worked out.
Both sides acknowledged the traditionally close and friendly relations between the two countries while Nadda said that the majority of the people in Mauritius have their ancestral roots in India.
Earlier in the day, Gayan, accompanied by his country's High Commissioner Jagdishwar Goburdhun visited AIIMS here and also held wide ranging discussions with AIIMS acting Director G K Rath.
"Rath indicated that AIIMS, subject to due approvals of the Union Health Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry would be happy to collaborate with the apex medical institutions of Mauritius with the objective of improving the standards of post graduate and medical education.
"Such a collaboration could be in the form of observerships of Mauritius doctors to AIIMS," Rath said according to an official statement.
During the interaction, Gayan identified the problem areas in medical care in Mauritius and highlighted that there was an acute shortage of surgeons in cardiology, neurosurgery, paediatric surgery, radiology, obstetrics and gynaecology, oncology and hospital management.
Gayan said that AIIMs has contributed in the past to development of medical sciences in Mauritius through medical education, research and patient care.
Rath also said that the Pan African E-Health Network is operational in Mauritius through the SSRN Hospital and live surgeries and several consultation procedures can be taken up under the Pan African E-Health Network.
