Urges industry to come forward, priorities countries in short term to allow international patients to come to India
Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt of India said that it is imperative for the healthcare industry to focus on critical areas like quality, trust and transparency so that the sector becomes more vibrant.
Addressing a webinar ‘Medical Value Travel – Strategies for Road Ahead’, organized by FICCI during the on-going ‘Virtual Healthcare and Hygiene Expo (VHHE) 2020’, Jain said, “The government is very keen to work with the industry on these parameters.” He further added that the quality of services is paramount in the healthcare industry.
In a bid to promote the Medical Value Travel (MVT), Jain said that we need a lot of proactive information sharing and establish ourselves as a global leader. “Resumption of operations is very critical, and we would require SOPs prepared by FICCI once we open up. We need to determine if all components are in place in addition to hospital infrastructure,” he added.
Jain urged the industry to come forward and priorities the countries in the short term to allow international patients to come to India. He also suggested to priorities medical facilities across India in the short term to cater to the patients who need critical care.
“There are facilities located in areas which are not much impacted by the pandemic and lying idle. We should use those facilities for priority cases along with the SOPs to treat patients with an integrated plan in the short term. The government will look into this and provide all necessary support,” he said.
Emphasizing on the importance of telemedicine to boost MVT sector, Jain said that the government recently announced the guidelines on the use of telemedicine in India. “There are existing models which we have started in telemedicine facilities and teleconsultation procedures. Now, we need to go beyond our boundaries and use it for other countries and ensure our expertise and skills can be used through this medium. The government is ready to facilitate this,” he added.
The webinar was also addressed by Dr. Devlina Chakravarty, MD and CEO, Artemis Hospitals; Deepak Venugopalan, Regional COO – Bengaluru and TN, Manipal Health Enterprise; Anil Vinayak, Group COO, Fortis Healthcare and Abhik Moitra, President-HBG, Medical Assistance, General Secretary, FHWP.
The webinar was attended by 265 foreign delegates from 43 countries apart from Indian delegates from the sector.
Source-www.expresshealthcare.in