UK can help India bring best healthcare to smart cities: NHS chief

New Delhi : The United Kingdom can play a "significant" role in helping India bring the best healthcare solutions to its proposed smart cities, a top functionary of UK's largest healthcare system National Health Service (NHS) said.

"The UK has developed some of the most innovative healthcare services and systems in the world over the past seven decades of NHS. The UK has an unmatched combination of clinical, technological and academic expertise.

"I hope that our visit will help write a new chapter in the history of India's health services, both in the private sector and in the Union government's ambition to provide universal healthcare. British expertise is ideally placed to play a significant role in helping India bring the best smart healthcare to its Smart Cities programme," NHS chairman Sir Malcolm Grant said here.

Grant, who is leading a high-powered trade mission to India, comprising representatives of 23 British companies and NHS Trusts, will hold talks with key Health Ministry officials and representatives of hospitals of North India.

The delegation, which was at the inauguration of the 'Smart Healthcare Demonstrator' exhibition here, will also visit Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The visit comes after a bilateral agreement between the UK and India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to the UK where he and his British counterpart David Cameron emphasised on the potential of increased investment and cooperation between the two countries in health-related sectors.

British High Commissioner to India Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG said there are vast opportunities for the two countries to form closer partnerships and the healthcare sector, where the UK is a world leader, exemplifies the potential for greater collaboration.

"Indian government wants to provide universal healthcare and adopt 'smart healthcare' to support sustainable and world-class services for the Indian people.

"The UK has the expertise and technology to support every aspect of India's healthcare systems and services. There is no better time than now for the UK and India to partner and shape the future of Indian healthcare," he said.