Trade mission to India celebrates 70 years of NHS innovation
Healthcare UK took NHS Trusts and partner companies to meet potential customers in India, marking the 70th anniversary of both the NHS and independent India.
Sir Malcolm Grant, Chair of NHS England, speaking at the India-UK Createch Summit
Demand for innovative healthcare solutions in the Indian healthcare system has never been higher. The 70 years of NHS innovation mission was designed to show examples of exciting new approaches, systems and services.
Healthcare in India
India’s healthcare market is estimated to grow to US$280 billion by 2020 according to KPMG. The government health service spends only 1.4% of GDP on healthcare service. The 4.7% of GDP spent on healthcare overall reflects the out of pocket expenditure most Indians make.
Private medications and services are provided by some excellent leading healthcare companies as well as a fragmented collection of smaller providers of varying quality.
Innovative healthcare solutions are needed due to:
- the dramatic rise in non-communicable diseases (NCD’s), especially diabetes and heart disease
- an ageing population
Healthcare UK mission
3 NHS Trusts and 11 UK healthcare companies took part in the mission, seeking commercial opportunities to work with the Indian healthcare industry. They were led by Sir Malcolm Grant, Chair of NHS England, Sarah Wilkinson, CEO of NHS Digital and Deborah Kobewka, Managing Director of Healthcare UK.
The 3 NHS trusts had innovative training and consultancy offers including:
- a proton therapy school
- cardio-thoracic robotic surgery
- the 100,000 genomes project
- a collaboration with Google’s Deep Mind
Deborah Kobewka said of the event:
This was remarkably successful mission, supported by our VIPs, where carefully selected UK companies and NHS Trusts had specific requests for their services from most of the Indian healthcare companies we met in the 3 cities
Mission highlights
Highlights of the mission included joining the India UK Createch 2018 Summit in Mumbai addressed by HRH The Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex.
At this event, future creative technology in healthcare featured alongside the future of transport, space travel, music and film. Another highlight was meeting the Honourable Minister of Health and Family Welfare for Maharashtra, India’s most popular state with over 114 million inhabitants.
Sir Malcolm Grant also met with the national Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and companion ministries to discuss the Indo UK Institute of Health’s programme to build 11 major hospitals and medicities alongside up to 5,000 diagnostic and treatment clinics.
Response from India
The delegation met senior healthcare leaders from both private and government sectors in a series of round tables, seminars and networking receptions in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The delegation met over 250 potential customers in the 3 cities and finished with a visit and discussion with the biggest of them all, Apollo Hospitals.
Each of the Indian delegates were very clear on which of the companies they wanted to pursue opportunities with and Healthcare UK is optimistic that some excellent collaborations and business ventures will be realised as a result.
Sir Malcolm Grant said:
As Britain celebrates its own historic landmark of the 70th Anniversary of the NHS on 5 July, I look forward to India-UK collaboration on healthcare being stronger than ever.
Contact Healthcare UK to learn more about international opportunities
If you are an innovative healthcare system provider looking to develop operations overseas please contact us at Healthcare UK to discuss how we can help you.