PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry & Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) sign a 5 year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to augment a strategic partnership for skill building in Healthcare in India

New Delhi, April 27, 2016: With an aim to augment the Government of India’s ‘Skill India’ flagship project and to create a robust and vibrant eco-system for quality skill development in the healthcare sector, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) signed a 5 year memorandum of understanding for launching a joint program to organize capacity building initiatives in skilling healthcare professionals especially in the areas of chronic diseases and prevention of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

The MoU signed by Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber and Professor K. Srinath Reddy, President, PHFI, will undertake a country-wide initiatives to conduct training workshops for industry, government (Central/ State) and MNCs on important public health issues, with a special focus on Non Communicable Diseases.

In his address Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber lauded the timing of the MoU and said “The Indian healthcare sector today is growing at a brisk pace and this MoU comes at a time when the Skill India Movement is looking at bringing about convergence. Along with PHFI, a key partner that has already developed capacity building and academic programmes, PHD Chamber renews its commitment to address the shortage in human resources in health through this MoU, hence being instrumental in advocating to corporates sustainable approaches in Indian healthcare sector.”

Pointing out the major constraints faced by Healthcare professionals, Dr Mahesh Gupta emphasized that this sector in India is suffering with overworked professionals as there is a severe shortage of staff. The skill development workshops can be used across India to scale up and get this workforce to be competent in the healthcare space.

Stressing on the need to upgrade skills in the Healthcare sector, Prof. K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) emphasized “The healthcare sector is expected to drive the growth of the economy as well as play a significant role in employment. In spite of notable progress and many positive developments, deficiencies in human resources both in terms of skills and numbers continue to pose a challenge for healthcare sector, affecting “Universal Health Coverage for All”. This MoU is a landmark initiative and will provide training on best practices in healthcare to a large spectrum of professionals in order to improve their employability and work towards a healthier India.”

According to the most recent figures reported in the World Health Statistics 2011, the density of doctors in India is 6 for a population of 10,000, while that of nurses and midwives is 13 per 10,000 population. India has a doctor-to-population ratio of 0.5:1000 in comparison to 0.3 in Thailand, 0.4 in Sri Lanka, 1.6 in China, 5.4 in the UK, and 5.5 in the United States of America.

Further the density of practicing healthcare workforce gets further skewed as almost 25% doctors and 40% nurses do not practice in the formal health system. Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in its 2012 report estimated a shortage of 6.4 million allied health professionals in the country. The report highlighted the gap in both; sheer number of professionals of various specialties as well as the quality of skills acquired by the graduating students from several hundreds of institutions across the country.

According to estimates, The overall Indian healthcare market today is worth US$ 100 billion and is expected to grow to US$ 280 billion by 2020, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9 per cent. Healthcare delivery, which includes hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostics centers, and pharmaceuticals, constitutes 65 per cent of the overall market. ( Source : IBEF- India Brand Equity Foundation).

Mr.Nishant Berlia, Chairman, PHD Health Committee said that there is a significant scope for enhancing healthcare services considering that healthcare spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is rising. Rural India, which accounts for over 70 per cent of the population, is set to emerge as a potential demand source.

He added that with a billion-plus population India needs an extensive and vast healthcare infrastructure and huge trained work force of healthcare professionals. Despite spurt of new hospitals and medical facilities across the country, we are still way behind from getting the adequate hospitals and medical personnel. Currently India has 0.9 beds per 1,000 populations, which is far below the global average of 2.9 beds. By 2022, it is estimated that India would require over 27 lakh additional beds. Along with huge dearth of these regular healthcare services, our country also grossly lacks in emergency medical response services. In a country where 160,000 people die every year in road accidents and millions other die due to cardiovascular problems, both scenarios where emergency medical assistance is required, there are only about 10,000 medical emergency response technicians have been trained since 2005 in the nation of 1.2 billion. By contrast, the United States has 240,000 for a population that is a fourth of India’s.

Dr D Prabhakaran, Vice President (Research and Policy), Public Health Foundation of India said, “Today there is ample evidence suggesting that empowered health professionals can be the leaders of change, playing critical roles in improving the reach of health services especially in countries like India which has enough challenges in the health sector. This MoU will not only identify skill-gaps in the healthcare industry, but will also jointly develop various courses and trainings, to build & upgrade the capacity of healthcare in the country, ultimately being an innovative vehicle to achieve the objectives of the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.”

The MoU will aim and work to develop and conduct training workshops for Healthcare professionals on chronic diseases across India and to develop and facilitate worksite wellness programs with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Heads, particularly for the prevention of NCDs (Non Communicable Diseases). Training workshops (Training of Trainers) & Monitoring & Evaluation programs for industry, Govt-Central/ State/ MNC’s/ world bodies in healthcare & associated areas on important issues in public health will be developed and conducted by PHFI and PHD Chamber.

Through this MoU, PHD Chamber will work to place the issue of public health on every corporate boardroom agenda. The focus of Public Health in PHD Chamber is to advocate for curative and preventive health beyond that of the employees and dependents into the community and the less privileged ones. The focus areas have been prevention and management of Non Communicable diseases (NCDs), research, healthcare innovation etc. among others through projects and programs. Similarly, Public Health Foundation of India will fortify its mandate to respond to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health, and develop various capacity building initiatives for primary care physicians in the field of NCDs and CVD.

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)