The government of Afghanistan ministry of health’s eight-member delegation accompanied by USAID workers were in India recently to visit the Merrygold Anand Hospital, Sitapur Road, Lucknow to learn about the successful low cost quality health care model.

The main reason for the Afghan health delegation visit to India was that as part of the South Asia region, India had developed a sound affordable healthcare model for the poor patients. This was found wanting in the war-torn Afghanistan region, according to a press release.

The objective of the delegation was to replicate such a model in Afghanistan. The delegation visited the Merrygold Anand Hospital on Sitapur Road, Lucknow to understand the social franchising and outreach networking methods. The facility is a HLFPPT promoted healthcare centre which is a not-for-profit organisation promoted by HLL Lifecare Limited, a Government of India Enterprise.

The delegation studied the HLFPPT’s experience of setting up and running Merrygold chain of hospitals for the underprivileged, stated the release.

The delegation led by Dr Omarzaman Sayedi included Osman Fahim, Dr Ghulam Sarwar Homayee, Bawar Seran and Khalid Rahim who interacted with the outreach workers at the hospital. They comprehended the experiences of working under challenging circumstances.

Further Afghan delegation also evinced keen interest in the benchmark set in child and maternal welfare by Merrygold Health Network.