Govt plans 'Heal by India' for positioning India as global source for health sector

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], February 19 : The government of India is looking to promote 'Heal by India' for strengthening the country's educational institutions in the health sector and enhancing education to churn out quality human resources in health, thus helping them become eligible to work anywhere in the world.
The Union Health Ministry recently organised a Chintan Shivir -- 'Heal by India' for two days.
One of the senior health officials, who attended the event, said that four major points were discussed including training and skills, quality education, employment opportunities and working on providing required amenities like advanced technology to make India's health sector a global source.
"The two-day Chintan Shivir included positioning India as a global source for quality talent for international employers, facilitating gateways for global employment for resident human resources for health and attracting global talent to receive quality education from our educational institutions in the health sector," said an official from Union Health Ministry.
To achieve the objectives under 'Heal by India', the official from the Ministry said that the government of India is also working on assets like well-qualified faculty, no language barrier, availability of advanced technology, positive government policies etc.
A senior official, who attended the Chintan Shivir, said that the 'Heal by India' initiative is meant to generate job opportunities abroad for our trained professionals in the health sector.
"Especially for those that have high demand outside India. It includes almost 50-60 streams like dieticians, nurses, lab technicians, paramedics, OT (operation theatre) attendants, physiotherapists, OT technicians, medical attendants for old age patients care etc. They will be trained under the Skill India programme," the official added.
The officials further informed that another discussion in the Chintan Shivir included a shortage of doctors across the globe and giving aspiring doctors opportunities to study in India.
"We have a shortage of doctors. We can't encourage them to go abroad but we can give them some seats in the developing countries and can open doors for the students from those countries to get medical training in India at top private and government medical colleges of country like twenty AIIMS and other best medical colleges," he said.
Some of the nursing councils have already signed MoU with countries like Japan, Nigeria, Ethiopia etc.
"If we wanted to send our paramedical staff to Ukraine then it's important to know their language, cultural dimensions. A framework has been made to provide such courses," he said
The Union Health Ministry will be organising more Chintan Shivirs. The next Shivir will be based on 'Heal in India', during which the government is looking to promote medical tourism. Under this campaign, the government will focus on strengthening medical infrastructure, improving primary health care, tertiary health care, medical insurance etc will be discussed.
The committee present at Shivir will be further chaired by Dr VK Paul with Secretary (Health), Secretary (Ayush), representatives from NMC, PCR, INC, DCI Invest India, NSDC, MEA, FSSAI, specialists from the private sector as members. There would be 3-4 Sub-committees with specific terms of reference to achieve the goals. A five-year plan of action would be formulated within the timeline of two months.