PANJIM: The first day of 2nd Health Working Group meeting under G20 India Presidency currently underway at Bambolim, saw multiple brainstorming sessions on various aspects revolving around the three priorities of India’s G20 Health track.
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pawar, Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik delivered the keynote address and special address respectively at the inaugural session.
Dr Pawar stated that, “India’s G20 priorities focus on reformed multilateralism that creates an accountable, inclusive, equitable and representative forum, fit for addressing the many challenges in the 21st century.”
Highlighting India’s efforts in promoting health and wellness tourism, Naik said that India remained the one of the top destinations for medical tourism witnessing more than 1.4 million medical tourists. He also urged delegates to collectively contribute to a more holistic and sustainable approach to global health and appealed that they engage in meaningful discussion on various aspects of the global health architecture.
Both the Ministers also inaugurated an exhibition showcasing India’s innovative interventions taken in recent years, success stories in digital healthcare arena. Post inaugural session, three technical sessions with keynote addresses by public health experts and key stakeholders were held.
During the first session on “Health Emergencies Prevention, Preparedness and Response (HEPPR)”, the key speakers were Prof K Srinath Reddy, former president and distinguished professor, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI); Dr Hanan H Balkhy, Assistant Director-General for AMR, WHO; Dr Michael Ryan, executive director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme. Discussions on embedding anti-microbial resistance in HEPPR governance systems and financing and ensuring coherence and complementarity of ongoing HEPPR efforts at various governance levels were held.
Members also discussed comprehensive proposals on building collaborative surveillance systems in pandemic management, supported by advanced networks of laboratories and relevant infrastructure.
Discussions during session two on “Strengthening Cooperation in Pharmaceutical Sector with Focus on Access and Availability to Safe, Effective, Quality and Affordable Medical Countermeasures”, revolved around creating better collaborations at various levels. Be it public and private partnerships or international collaborations through a network-of-network coordination platform or platforms to ensure equitable access to medical counter measures.
Dr Vinod K Paul, member (Health), NITI Aayog shed light on the digital healthcare landscape and pharmaceutical sector that are flourishing in India and urged stakeholders to take advantage of the learnings and exchange best practices amongst the G20 nations.
He said that participants must converge opportunities and momentum provided by initiatives spurred by COVID-19 and capitalise on it. He also called for enhanced support for global medical countermeasures coordination.
Discussion on draft Outcome Document was done exclusively amongst G20 member States. It was emphasised that any consensus must be built through measures that are evidence-based, inclusive, fair, equitable, transparent and need-based. Various specific interventions and solutions were discussed during this enriching session.