NHS expertise sold abroad
pharmafile | January 31, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | NHS, UK, government, outsourcing
The government has set up an organisation which will seek to maximise revenue from foreign firms and governments for the NHS’s expertise.
Health minister Lord Howe this week launched Healthcare UK, a joint initiative between the Department of Health, NHS Commissioning Board and UK Trade & Investment, at the Arab Health Congress in Dubai.
Its raison d’etre is to facilitate transactions between private and public buyers outside the UK, giving them access to areas such as healthcare delivery, training, clinical services and data analysis.
The idea is that this will help to boost the value of the UK’s international trade in healthcare products and services.
“The UK is a world leader in healthcare, with unrivalled experience and expertise in meeting the health needs of a diverse population,” explained Lord Howe.
Healthcare UK is ‘good news’ for UK plc, he went on, adding that the sluggish domestic economy will benefit from extra jobs and revenue created by “our highly successful healthcare industries as they trade more across the globe”.
It will also mean more money for the NHS across the UK, he pledged. Through billions of pounds of investment, the NHS represents a goldmine of information and experience built up over decades.
Healthcare UK will trade on this as well as on the names of respected institutions such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, Guys and St Thomas’s and Moorfield’s Eye Hospital.
It will also run campaigns to boost the profile of the UK’s health sector overseas – including private sector providers and academic researchers as well as the NHS – and provide a single point of contact.
The organisation will work the other way too, helping the UK’s health sector to proactively look for opportunities in foreign countries, including by putting together consortia.
The areas of greatest potential interest for foreign investors are likely to include helping to improve clinical services, training, public-private collaborations, creating medical facilities and data analysis, planning and implementation plus innovations such as telehealth.
The government says several UK companies have already won contracts overseas:
- Capita Symonds is to conduct the design review and construction supervision of a 415-bed expansion to the existing Amiri Hospital in Kuwait
- Arup has won its first healthcare project for a 1,500-bed hospital in China’s Henan province
- Alliance Boots has partnered with US drug store chain Walgreens to create a global pharmacy-led health and wellbeing enterprise
- King’s Health Partners are setting up a day case outpatient clinic and a foetal medicine clinic at existing institutions in Abu Dhabi
- Sheffield Hallam University has an agreement with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health, which the government says could see Kuwaiti nursing leaders being trained in Sheffield
- Serco has a ten-year deal to provide facilities and operational management at a hospital in Western Australia.
Adam Hill
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