AIIMS to assist medical institutes of Mauritius

AIIMS (The All India Institute of Medical Sciences) today expressed its willingness to assist the medical institutions in Mauritius to improve their standard of post graduate and medical education.

Anil Kumar Singh Gayan, Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Republic of Mauritius, accompanied by his country's High Commissioner Jagdishwar Goburdhun, visited AIIMS today and held wide ranging discussions with the institution's acting Director G K Rath.

"Rath indicated that AIIMS, subject to due approvals of the Union Health Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry, would be happy to collaborate with the apex medical institutions of Mauritius for improving the standard of post graduate and medical education.

"Such a collaboration could be in the form of observerships of Mauritius doctors to AIIMS," an official statement said.

During the interaction, Gayan identified the problematic areas in medical care in Mauritius and highlighted there was an acute shortage of surgeons in cardiology, neurosurgery, paediatric surgery, radiology, obstetrics and gynaecology, oncology and hospital management.

Gayan noted that AIIMS had contributed in the past to the development of medical sciences in Mauritius through medical education, research and patient care.

He said under the MOU for bilateral cooperation in the field of heal and medicine signed between the two countries in 2013, Mauritius would be seeking to convert the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital into a teaching institution, identify a group of hospitals for tapping resources of specialists and collaborate in the areas of traditional medicine.

Talking about other initiatives taken by Mauritius to improve its medical care, Rath said live surgeries and several consultation procedures can now be taken up under the Pan African E-Health Network operational in the Indian Ocean island nation through the SSRN Hospital.