Health Education England and Apollo Hospitals Group sign MoU

The collaboration to promote co-operation and interaction in healthcare education between India and England

Apollo Hospitals Group and Health Education England (HEE) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote co-operation and interaction in healthcare education between India and England. This significant step is expected to deepen and enhance the experience of global learning to the healthcare workforce in India and the region.

With Abhilash Puzhakara from the British Deputy High Commission, Hyderabad gracing the occasion, the MoU signed by Sangita Reddy, Joint MD, Apollo Hospitals Group and Prof Ian Cumming, CEO, HEE in the presence of Sir Keith Pearson, Chair, HEE, and Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group.

The collaboration, by establishing a global platform, aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Clinical rotation of doctors, nurses and midwives and other health professionals, as well as undergraduate healthcare students through mutual exchange. This will be towards not only enhancing the educational offer to the current and future healthcare workforce but also leveraging the benefits of global learning for the delivery of the highest possible quality of care to patients within both countries.

• The possibility of establishing a ‘global healthcare school’ to ensure that opportunities for global learning is available to all healthcare current and future workforce of both countries

• The establishment of a model for the co-production of ‘globally educated’ healthcare workforce which can serve as a basis for further relationships with other geographies (other regions such as SAARC, Far East, GCC/Middle East, Africa etc)

• The exploration of the feasibility of mutual accreditation of healthcare professional to allow a freer exchange of staff which in turn will promote shared learning

• The promotion of overseas volunteering and internships to provide international experience and learning through structured observerships and short term placements

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Reddy said, “At Apollo, it has always been our endeavour to partner with prestigious institutions globally, and this collaboration with HEE is a significant step in addressing the growing concern of shortage of quality medical talent that the world is facing. With this collaboration, we will be establishing one of the foremost platforms to train the healthcare workforce of the world.”

Sir Pearson, speaking on the occasion, said, “HEE is committed to bringing a difference to the quality of healthcare workforce in regions of the world which have a dearth of trained manpower & concerns with quality of patient care. Towards this mandate, we are delighted to partner with Apollo Hospitals Group. Through this collaboration we will be not only delivering our high quality medical education programs to the workforce in India but also in future, to workforce in other low and middle income countries of the region.”

Prof Cumming, speaking on the occasion, said, “HEE is delighted to sign a MoU with Apollo Hospitals Group which commits us to seek ways that both Indian and English patients can benefit through joint working to enhance the education and training of clinical staff. The great friendship between our two nations is underlined once again by this agreement that we hope will see healthcare professionals from both countries learning from, and teaching to, the healthcare systems in our respective countries. We both have much to learn from each other which can only benefit the care we provide to our patients.”

Prof Ged Byrne, Director & Dean for Education and Quality (North) HEE, said, “Healthcare education is entering a new global phase where we cannot offer the best healthcare workers to the patients unless they understand health issues facing all of us globally as well as those that affect us locally. This agreement is a significant step forward in learning globally to improve care to our patients locally.”

“The MoU is an important milestone for all of us at Apollo Hospitals Group. We are excited with the multiple possibilities of value creation this collaboration can potentially bring alongwith the immense scope to enhance the quality of healthcare around the world besides with in India and the UK. It is also encouraging to see the significant role of technology in creating this global healthcare education platform and bring world class exposure to Indian healthcare workforce,” stated Sangita Reddy.