Abstract
As the UK reiterates its commitment to protecting and growing its development aid budget amidst an adverse economic environment for the UK and Europe, we discuss the potential to use the country’s National Health Service (NHS) model as a vehicle for promoting the country’s economic as well as global health diplomacy and development priorities, through a coordinated cross-government plan of action. With the country’s Prime Minister serving as a co-chair of the UN post-2015 development agenda panel,a this is a unique opportunity for the UK to put forward its health system architecture as a highly applicable and well-tested model for providing access to efficient and cost-effective care, with minimal financial hardship. Arguably, such a model tailored to the needs of specific countries could consequently lead to commercial opportunities for UK plc. in areas such as consulting, training, education and healthcare products. Finally, this approach would be consistent with the current thinking on the evolving role of UK aid, especially in the case of emerging powers such as India, where the focus has shifted from aid to investment in technical assistance and cooperation as a means of boosting bilateral business and trade.
Highlights
As the UK reiterates its commitment to protecting and growing its development aid budget amidst an adverse economic environment for the UK and Europe, we discuss the potential to use the country’s National Health Service (NHS) model as a vehicle for promoting the country’s economic as well as global health diplomacy and development priorities, through a coordinated cross-government plan of action
The NHS as a trade, foreign and global development policy tool In December 2012, the United Nations’ General Assembly voted in favour of a resolution for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) [1], firmly placing the UHC movement at the centre of the discussions on what takes the place of the Millennium Development Goal framework [2] come 2015
A few days later, the US State Department set up a new office of Global Health Diplomacy and appointed its first ever Global Health Ambassador to: “...work with ambassadors to build political will in countries, in pursuit of sustainable health systems without barriers to care” [3]
Summary
In an increasingly multicultural environment, the NHS can learn a lot through engaging internationally [45]. With the British Prime Minister having served as the co-chair of the post-MDG agenda panel, now is a unique opportunity for the UK Government to systematise its response to the demand for knowledge and technical assistance to learn from the NHS experience, whilst capitalising on the possibility of working across government sectors to address the UK’s foreign policy, trade and aid priorities This is the right time to commission a full economic analysis of both the costs and tangible and intangible (including those stemming from development and global health diplomacy) benefits of investing in promoting the.
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