After a year in the making, on 5 November 2015 I had the great pleasure of being present at the first AGM of the UK International Healthcare Management Association, held at British Expertise International’s offices, along with representatives from the 36 founder members, of both public and private sector.
For the past year, Healthcare UK has held meetings with a number of public and private sector healthcare organisations, both big and small, all grappling with the challenge of responding to opportunities too large or too complex for any single organisation to respond to on their own.
Every few weeks, Healthcare UK receives a new, exciting opportunity for the design, build and management of a hospital or healthcare facility in markets such as China, Oman, Hong Kong and India, but struggles to find UK healthcare organisations that can bring together a unified UK offer in the required timeframe.
After many hours of enthusiastic discussion and debate on how we could improve the UK’s capability and capacity to respond to these opportunities, Healthcare UK was asked to facilitate the founding of an association – the UK International Healthcare Management Association (UKIHMA).
UKIHMA’s mission is to share, promote and grow the capability of UK providers to win contracts to manage healthcare services overseas, with members specialising in everything from design to delivery and ongoing improvement of healthcare facilities and services.
There was a great turnout for the AGM, chaired by Howard Lyons, Healthcare UK’s Managing Director, with more than 50 attendees. There was a real buzz of excitement, and even more so once the constitution was agreed, as the idea that had been developed over the past 12 months finally became reality.
On behalf of all at Healthcare UK, I would like to congratulate those who join Howard Lyons on the Executive Committee of UKIHMA, elected by their fellow members:
- Therese Patten – Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- John O’Connell – BMJ
- Victoria Cheston – Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
- Ralph Dando – International Hospitals Group
- David Bebb – Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Ken Grant – Mott Macdonald
- Steve Buckley – OCS Group Ltd.
- Sue Holden – York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
British Expertise International will be providing secretariat and promotional support to UKIHMA for its initial year, with a dedicated programme team.
I would like to wish UKIHMA and its members all the best and much success for this foundation year. This partnership between public and private sector organisations, big and small, is a great opportunity for all involved to come together, showcase and deliver the best of what the UK has to offer in healthcare in a coordinated way.
We at Healthcare UK are very excited to be a part of UKIHMA and look forward to working with you all, to help you do more business overseas.
2 comments
Comment by Rebecca Wareham posted on
If you were interested in joining UKIHMA, you can find out more and submit your expression of interest via an application form here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-support-to-export-uk-healthcare-management-expertise
Comment by Max posted on
Very interesting article here, Thanks- Max: http://www.parkhealth.clinic