Global Partnership With India – 20 Years Of Opportunities, Challenges And Successes!

Global Partnership With India – 20 Years Of Opportunities, Challenges And Successes!

Holly Gillott, Iain Inglis, Leena Thakur, Sarang Puranik, Sanjay Deshpande

Since 2006, SVJC Trust has established sustainable UK–India medical collaborations, performing over 3,000 operations and empowering more than 1,000 healthcare students and professionals. Multidisciplinary UK teams specialising in anaesthesia, orthopaedics, general, maxillofacial, urology, ophthalmology, radiology, pain, intensive care and obstetrics; have worked alongside local staff to enhance perioperative care.

Key patient-safety advancements include implementing and translating the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist into Marathi, establishing pre-operative fasting protocols, raising awareness of Difficult Airway Society guidelines, conducting Basic to Advanced Life Support courses, and introducing ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia training. The 2015 launch of an on-site medical school, followed by recognised postgraduate programmes recognised by the Indian NMC, enabled the UK teams to integrate structured medical education, including OSCE examinations.

Over two decades, UK resident doctors have conducted multiple quality improvement projects presented at numerous international conferences. The partnership is now accredited by the Royal College of Anaesthetists for Out of Programme Training, supports medical student electives, and is endorsed by the Association of Surgeons in Training.

Despite successes, the programme confronts language barriers, cultural differences, especially around tropical diseases, and consent practices. Local staff support and mutual learning continue to improve these hurdles with each visit.

This presentation highlights twenty years of dedication, commitment from both ends, contributing to enormous satisfaction for both teams, this motivates both sides to organise ongoing trips and developmental partnership.

Keywords: Global partnerships, India, perioperative care, medical education