Healthcare UK, a joint initiative of the Department of Health (DH), UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and NHS England, is supporting Indo-UK Healthcare Pvt Ltd, a consortium of UK and India-based promoters to develop a chain of 11 Indo-UK Institutes of Health across the country which aim to bring the UK’s finest NHS Hospitals, educational institutions and universities to India.

The first of the Indo-UK Institutes of Health – called King’s College Hospital, is to come up in New Chandigarh, Punjab. Lord Kerslake, chairman- King’s College Hospital, London and Dr Ajay Rajan Gupta, director, Indo-UK Healthcare Private Limited signed the commercial agreement and briefed the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom.

The two Prime Ministers welcomed the agreement signed between Kings College, Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Indo-UK Healthcare Private Ltd to develop Kings College Hospital, New Chandigarh. This is the first of a proposed eleven new Indo-UK Institutes for Health that will be developed across India which, when fully implemented, would amount to a £1billion investment into India’s healthcare system, accompanied by strategic clinical and training partnerships with the UK’s finest NHS organisations, universities and private sector companies.

It was agreed that both countries stand to benefit from collaborations in healthcare. To this end, the two Prime Ministers agreed to a Government to Government Implementation Taskforce to help drive forward the delivery of the eleven proposed Indo-UK Institutes for Health and to foster greater collaboration in other areas of this important sector.

Indo UK Healthcare Private Limited is a corporate entity representing the core group of India-UK based promoters, led by Dr Ajay Rajan Gupta, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at London North West NHS Trust. Dr Ajay Rajan Gupta who is also the MD and group CEO of the Indo UK Institutes of Health stated “This project is all about bringing the ‘best of British’ healthcare to India- 'NHS in India'. Our aim is to provide access to this unique service to as many of my fellow Indians as possible through the eleven Indo-UK Institutes of Health to deliver world class accountable healthcare which is ‘affordable to all’. Ango-Indian research collaborations in genetics and translational research would support delivery of better healthcare”.

Funds for the project will be raised through a combination of debt and equity from a consortium of banks including UK Export Finance and leading private equity funds including Elara Capital.

Elara Capital shall be acting as sole advisor for raising funds for these projects.

Each of the 11 ‘Indo UK Institutes of Health will entail a foreign direct investment of GBP £100 million (Rs. 1000 crore) per project across eleven states and will include multispecialty NHS-branded hospital for healthcare delivery, clinical support services, NHS e-health, staff accommodation, a medical college, a nursing college, research and development facilities, medical manufacturing facilities and a medical mall. The project once completed will employ 5,000 doctors and 25,000 nurses, allied health specialists for the 11,000 beds. The project has the potential of creating upwards of 100,000 jobs. The medical and nursing colleges will train 15,000 new MBBS doctors and 20,000 nurses.

MoU has been signed between Indo UK Healthcare Pvt. Ltd and Shapoorji Pallonji and company private limited to construct the 11 Institutes of Health.