NATHEALTH-Healthcare Federation of India and Africa Healthcare Federation (AHF) signed a path-breaking Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to increase healthcare collaboration between the two federations with potential to result in increased investment and business in healthcare between India and Africa.
The agreement signed at the India Africa Health Summit today was witnessed by a galaxy of eminent dignitaries representing medical and healthcare sectors, Government, academia and development agencies. The MoU identifies specific areas of partnership such as sustainable and medical value travel, infrastructure development for hospitals and diagnostics, training and research, skill transfer and artificial intelligence and manufacturing. The main objective of this agreement is to find solutions to the barriers of access to quality healthcare, building essential infrastructure for patients, harness technology, address the shortage of skilled workforce and medical professionals and ways to improve patient outcomes.
The Summit theme, “Fostering South-South Collaboration between the Healthcare Federations of India and Africa to achieve Universal Health Coverage” sends out an important message that collaboration is central to realizing the goal of UHC and it is important that key stakeholders work together to build bridges across sectors and drive new initiatives to fix infrastructural gaps, improve health access and outcomes. As one of the first steps following the signing of the agreement, both federations will establish task forces over the next year that will work closely to further this partnership. Both AHF and NATHEALTH will bring together industry support behind this to make national programs successful while opening the doors for universal healthcare and scale-up of health care accessibility.
Expressing her happiness, Dr. Preetha Reddy, President – NATHEALTH and Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, said, “The partnership between NATHEALTH – Healthcare Federation of India and Africa Health Federation is a significant step being taken, to create an all-new trajectory in building robust healthcare ecosystems of the future. Undoubtedly, the future of healthcare will be shaped by the actions and decisions that we take today and the path to it, will require us to rise above conventional silos and surge ahead with the power of collaboration, partnerships and innovation. Path breaking cross-country platforms such as this partnership, they will enable exchange of skills, technologies, research, medical education, bridge gaps in our health systems and take us closer to our shared goal of universal health coverage.”
Dr. Amit Thakker, President – AHF and Executive Chairman, Africa Health Business said, “These extraordinary times united healthcare professionals across the globe and have paved the way for federations across countries to come together and chart a way forward to address some of the long-standing structural gaps. It has also opened doors for collaborative efforts to create mechanisms through which public-private partnership models could be developed seamlessly on a sustainable basis. Effective partnerships are a necessary part of creating successful healthcare systems and allow each player to carry out what they do best while also benefiting from what others do best. It provides the opportunity for win-win situations that make an impact that is greater than the sum of their parts.”
Dr Harsh Mahajan, Senior Vice President, NATHEALTH and Founder & Chief Radiologist, Mahajan Imaging and Ms. Clare Omatseye, Vice President, AHF & President, West Africa Private Healthcare Federation who also spoke at the summit, emphasized that the key outcome of this three-year partnership will be setting up task forces to build upon four areas of priority resulting in increased partnerships, PPP projects, technology transfer and investments.
Among the key dignitaries who addressed the audience were – Dr. Harsh Vardhan ji, Hon’ble Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, Government of India & Chairman, WHO Executive Board, H.E. Amira Elfadil, Commissioner for Social Affairs, Africa Union Commission; Shri V. Muraleedharan, Hon Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India; Hon Dr. Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health, Ethiopia; H.E. (His Excellency) AlemTsehayeWoldemariam, The Dean of African Missions in India, a host of senior Government healthcare officials from India and the African continent, healthcare industry leaders and heads of global multilateral agencies.
