Myanmar seeks PGI help to develop first-rate health facilities

LUCKNOW: State-of-the-art facilities at the Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences have greatly impressed a delegation of doctors from Myanmar’s 125-year-old Yangon general hospital.

The delegation, which arrived in the state capital on Tuesday for a four-day visit, discussed with PGI authorities the ways and means to increase cooperation between both countries in the field of health; they also expressed the possibility that Lucknow could emerge as a prominent destination for patients from Myanmar, who up till now would to go to Mumbai, Kolkata or Delhi for treatments like liver transplants or radio diagnosis for cancer.

The team consisting of deputy medical superintendent Dr Myint Myint Aye, senior consultant radiology Dr Aung Cho Tun, senior consultant anaesthesia Dr Hla Hla Han and neurophysician Dr San Oo, learned about the system practiced by SGPGIMS doctors in day-to-day patient management.

Spelling out its priorities, the team has asked for PGI’s assistance in areas of trauma and emergency, pre-hospital care, ambulance services, intensive care and radio diagnosis. Indian doctors may visit Maynmar soon for training and skill develop- ment of doctors there.

PGI director RK Sharma said the delegation had seen the institute’s telemedicine programme for African countries and shown interest in technical know-how of operating instruments, like the PET-scanner and the cyclotron machine for radio diagnosis. Sharma said they had also shown keen interest in how the PGI preserved its records online and how all hospital experts were connected with each other through the hospital information system. They wanted a similar system developed in Myanmar too.

Dr Aye said Myanmar and India had similar disease and patient profiles, but medical sciences in India had improved by leaps and bounds and were now at par with global standards. No one can imagine such a world- class institute providing medical care in a place like Lucknow, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, first secretary, development and cooperation, Embassy of India, Dr Neil Jain said India was at present involved in the development programme of Myanmar through various projects, and upgrading their hospital and health system was one of them.