All forums | Offtopic | High-profile milestone
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Hiers98
subject: High-profile milestone
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June 14, 2007 - 10:42 p.m. |
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The term outsourcing brings to mind pictures of job losses, captive units in low-cost developing countries, and plain offshore outsourcing. However, unique situations in developed countries have given rise to another sort of outsourcing. Here the service provider comes onshore and takes over the slack. Under the circumstances there is no loss of jobs, however, the services or products that were in under supply in the concerned country is taken over by the service provider.
Take for example Britain's NHS (National Health Service). Long waiting lists at the NHS had forced it to outsource some of its operations to cut the delay faced by its patients. Here the patients (customers) were not provided by prompt treatment and the undue delay in patient care lead to may unpleasant situations. This has been a sore point for the British for a long time now. The outsource solution that NHS came up was not to outsource offshore but rather outsource patient care “on site” so to speak.
By outsourcing onshore, apart for overcoming the problem of delayed treatment, NHS has also effectively quieted any hue and cry regarding loss of jobs to outsourcing.
The NHS is not selling any of its facilities. Healthcare companies participating in the NHS' outsourcing initiative will set up its own facilities to supplement the existing work and cover the backlog. The Apollo Hospital Group from India was, an active participant in the bid for this onshore outsource service.
In the current phase when Indian medical tourism is on the rise, with overseas patients flying in for treatment, participating in the NHS initiative is a high-profile milestone for the Indian healthcare industry as a whole.
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