“Britain Lags Behind When It Comes to India’s Tech Driven Healthcare System”: NHS UK Chair

By Mariyam F

In a recent interview with HealthTech Hour, Dr. Penny Dash, CBE, MSc, MBA, FRCP, who is the chair of NHS England, said that “India is going to become the Global exemplar in healthcare provision”. She spoke about her journey over the last 25 years, from starting as a hospital doctor to becoming a public health leader. Later, upon being asked which other countries she would swap healthcare systems with, she mentioned India’s name.

​She was particularly fascinated by how India uses technology to reduce unit cost and democratize access to healthcare. Healthcare services that do not require a doctor's intervention can be supported through technology and standardized processes, allowing doctors to focus on work requiring their expertise.

She also praised other countries like New Zealand for their tech and Australia for their innovation in primary care; however, the unit cost in these healthcare systems is very high. She also mentioned Singapore, which has a good model of community care. But these countries have a small population compared to India’s vast, continuously increasing population.

This praise comes as, over the last few years, India has diligently worked to improve its digital health framework by launching initiatives like Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

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Later in the podcast, Dr. Penny talked about the absence of a single patient record in Britain. Over there, primary care record (GP Record) is not the same as Hospital care record. She highlighted how a single patient record can be beneficial for enabling technology in their healthcare system.

There is also a misconception among a group of people regarding the risk of their healthcare data being put out in the public domain if they move to a single patient record. “Of course there are going to be some risks, nothing in life is risk free. But the advantages of having that data are so phenomenal to future development of care and science”, she said.​

Through Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), India has already started developing a single patient record system that enables individuals to link, access, and share their health records with their consent. ABDM does not centrally store medical records but facilitates secure data exchange between stakeholders within its digital health ecosystem.

​Mentioning other countries, she praised Germany its patient-sensitive payer models and the use of data analysis to monitor markets and trends and subsequently adapt the model. She also praised Nordic countries like Sweden for their primary care model and criticised Canada and USA for lagging behind in providing equal access to healthcare.

(Rh/MF)