40 ZAMBIAN HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO BE TRAINED IN INDIA
Saturday, January 27, 2024
HYDERABAD – A total of 40 Zambian Health professionals are expected to undergo intensive rotational training programme
at Yashoda Hospital in India by the end of next year under the capacity-building segment of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Health of Zambia and the Yashoda Hospitals.
Recently, five Zambian specialist doctors underwent hands-on rotational training by Yashoda in Hyderabad at no cost on the Zambian Government. The hospital now projects that by the end of 2025, an additional 40 Health Professionals will be trained in various fields.
Speaking during the meeting with Zambia High Commissioner to India H.E Mr. Percy Chanda yesterday, Yashoda Hospital General Manager for International Services Dr. Rohan Biradar expressed the hospital’s commitment to continue training Zambian doctors because of the commitment that the Ministry of Health has shown regarding the MoU.
He noted that among African countries with which his hospital has signed MoUs, Zambia has proved to be a reliable partner, and that the only way the country could localise some of the medical services for which patients are being evacuated to India for treatment is by building capacity among Zambian doctors.
“Recently, we sponsored five Zambian doctors who came and stayed here for about a month and half and everything in terms of training, internship, and air tickets were borne by our side. This is the fulfillment of our capacity building promise which we made about training doctors and we are expecting by 2025 to train more 40 doctors.
“Obviously, I know that there is much we can do with Zambian nursing staff and doctors that come with the patients but these are small milestones which will impact the larger aspect of our collaboration between the Zambian Government and Yashoda. We have MoUs with other countries in Southern Africa but we are happy with Zambia, not because everything is smooth sailing, but because of your commitment to this cooperation,” Dr. Biradar said.
And Mr. Chanda implored Yashoda Hospital to consider localising its medical services in Zambia, the country’s strategic location which he said provides a readily-available market for their service.
The High Commissioner said setting up a hospital or pharmaceutical plant in Zambia would drastically reduce the number of patients seeking medical attention in India as the entire region would look to Zambia for medical tourism.
“If you set up a hospital or pharmaceutical plant in Zambia, within no time, you will be asking us for more space to expand because you will be overwhelmed by the demand from surrounding countries. We appreciate your training programme because you are contributing to serving humanity and we can only request you to do more,” Mr. Chanda said.
Meanwhile, Counsellor (Health) at the Zambia High Commission in India, Prof. Victor Mukonka, said sending patients to India for specialist treatment is not sustainable hence the Mission’s push to establish Centres of Excellence with the support of stakeholders in India so that patients can have access to specialized quality healthcare locally.
“There is a lot we can learn and get support from India. Sending patients to India in the long-run is not sustainable hence the need to build capacity in Zambia and set up Centres of Excellence with support from our colleagues in India.
“This way, we shall save a lot of resources and more importantly, more of our patients will have access to specialist treatment because the majority can’t afford to come to India. We are engaging with the Ministry of Health back home and identifying critical areas of training we need for Zambia so that we start reducing on treatment abroad,” Prof Mukonka said.
Issued by Bennie Mundando
First Secretary (Press)
Zambia High Commission
New Delhi – India