India partners Botswana in health care delivery

Correspondent | Friday March 3, 2017 15:24

Indian expertise in healthcare and hospitals and related systems development in an affordable and adaptable avatar has the potential to bring about faster transformation of healthcare in Africa. Indians’ wider acceptance especially in Anglo-phonic Africa countries and Indian Diaspora in these countries has laid a fertile ground for raising Indian assistance in healthcare in these countries.

There is long standing cooperation between India and Botswana in the health sector. First installment of grant-in-aid in the health sector, in the form of long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets, worth Pula 1.35 million was handed over to the Botswana authorities in November 2011.

Second installment of grant-in-aid in the health sector, in the form of entomology and laboratory equipment, hospital equipment and furniture, worth P3 million was handed over to Botswana authorities in December 2012.

Tele-medicine project under the Pan African e-Network Programme

Tele-medicine e-network facility has been established at the Nyangabgwe Hospital, Francistown with supply of medical equipment by Govt. of India, costing around $1,00,50. It is donated as PEL – Patient End Location. This has two components namely Continual Medical Education (CME) and Tele-Consultation.

The CME schedule and topics are circulated by AIIMS, Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi and monthly schedules of topics are circulated to the National Coordinator and Local Coordinator at the PEL for the benefit of Doctors and Students at the Nyangabgwe Hospital. We need to give impetus for optimal utilisation of the Tele-medicine e-network facility in Francistown as it is fully functional since middle of 2012.

Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, New Delhi, India conducted Botswana Cataract Blindness Campaign at the Sekgoma Memorial Hospital, Serowe in the Central District. More than 500 sight restoration surgeries have been performed from 7–18 November 2016.[ 2017 goal – 20% ].

Dr. Thuso Iketleng, Ophthalmologist, Scotish Hospital, Molepolole and Ms. Tshepiso Sethunya Montsho, Ophthalmic Nurse nominated for the course on Eye Care Training (Ophthalmology, Optometry & Ophthalmic Nursing) at Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, Delhi from March 1–30 March, 2017 and four doctors are being considered for training programme at Apollo Hospital in the year 2017.

Indus Healthcare

Having fine-tuned in India, the models for cost-effective and adaptable medical services in serving middle and lower income India, the Indus Healthcare currently are providing medical and medical-support services in Southern and Eastern Africa. Indus Healthcare employs over 900 individuals in India Directly and over 70 in Africa.

Tertiary Clinical Services in Partnership with Government of Botswana, covering 8 (eight) largest hospitals of Ministry of Health, Government of Botswana. Over 50,000 medical procedures have been performed annually since 2014 as part of this programme.

Academic Hospital in Francistown, Botswana:  Investment in Botswana for building and development of a Academic Hospital in Country’s second largest City of Francistown. It will be a phased development for 150 bedded hospital with first phase of 75 beds beginning construction in February 2017.

It is an investment with significant involvement of Indian architectural and design teams, Foreign Subsidiaries of Indian Banks, Indian exports of hospital equipment and bio-medical hospital devices etc.

The Academic Hospital is in line with Vision 2036 as it will guarantee access to health care services of the highest standard attainable, and of individuals to pursue healthy lifestyles. It also is in line with the Economic Stimulus Programme’s goal of employment generation as it will generate large numbers of employment for skilled and unskilled people.

Acharya Charak

Acharya Charak has been crowned as the Father of Medicine. In the “Charak Samhita” he has described the medicinal qualities and functions of 100,000 herbal plants. He has also prescribed and ethical charter for medical practitioners two centuries prior to the Hippocratic oath.

“They shall behave and act without arrogance, with care and attention and with undistracted mind, humility, constant reflection and ungrudging obedience.

Acting either at my behest or otherwise, they shall conduct themselves for the achievement of the teacher’s purpose alone, to the best of the abilities. Day and night, they shall endeavour for the relief of patients with all the heart and soul.

“One should not boast very much of one’s knowledge. There is no limit at all to the Science of Life, Medicine. So they should apply themselves to it with diligence.”

Medical Tourism in India

Medical tourism is a growing sector in India. In October 2015, India’s medical tourism sector was estimated to be worth $ 3 billion. It is projected to grow to $7–8 billion by 2020. According to the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the primary reason that attracts medical value travel to India is cost-effectiveness, and treatment from accredited facilities at par with developed countries at much lower cost.

The Medical Tourism Market Report: 2015 found that India was “one of the lowest cost and highest quality of all medical tourism destinations, it offers wide variety of procedures at about one-tenth the cost of similar procedures in the United States.

Traditionally, the United States and the United Kingdom have been the largest source countries for medical tourism to India. In 2015, India became the top destination for Russians seeking medical treatment. Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore and the National Capital Region received the highest number of foreign patients primarily from South Eastern countries.

Advantages of medical treatment in India include reduced costs, the availability of latest medical technologies, and a growing compliance on international quality standards, Doctors trained in western countries including US and UK, as well as English speaking personnel, due to which foreigners are less likely to face language barrier in India.

Most estimates found that treatment costs in India start at around one-tenth of the price of comparable treatment in the United States or the United Kingdom.

The most popular treatments sought in India by medical tourists are alternative medicine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass, eye surgery and hip replacement.

India is known in particular for heart surgery, hip resurfacing and other areas of advanced medicine.

After the patient has been treated, the patient has the option of either recuperating in the hospital or at a paid accommodation nearby. Many hospitals also give the option of continuing the treatment through telemedicine.

Despite India’s diversity of languages, English is an official language and is widely spoken by most people and almost universally by medical professionals.

In major urban areas, the quality of medical care is close to and sometimes exceeds first world standards. Indian healthcare professionals have the advantage of working in a very biologically active region exposing them to treatment regimens of various kinds of conditions.

The quality and amount of experience is arguably unmatched in most other countries.