Brazil’s Minister of Health visits Imperial for a Showcase in Health System Resilience

Brazil’s Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, visited Imperial College London on Thursday 9 October as part of a high-level mission to deepen cooperation between the UK and Brazil on public health, innovation and climate resilience.

The visit took place against the backdrop of intensifying international collaboration ahead of COP30, hosted in Belém, Brazil in November. With shared priorities spanning climate and health, both countries are working to align efforts that strengthen health systems, address inequalities, and accelerate innovation on a global scale.

Earlier that morning, Minister Padilha and Dr Zubir Ahmed, the UK’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Innovation and Safety, signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Department of Health and Social Care. The agreement lays the groundwork for a collaborative health agenda across areas including climate and health, racial equality, pandemic preparedness, and innovation in health systems.

Showcasing community health innovation

The Minister’s visit to The Abby Centre and Millbank GP Practice in Westminster was hosted by Professor Deborah Ashby, Dean of Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine, and Dr Matthew Harris from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, alongside clinical and community health leaders.

The delegation explored the UK’s Community Health and Wellbeing Worker (CHWW) Programme, a pioneering initiative inspired by Brazil’s Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) model. Over recent years, Imperial researchers and NHS partners have worked closely with Brazilian counterparts to translate and adapt the SUS community health worker approach into the UK context.

Dr Harris led the session, joined by Dr Connie Junghans from Millbank GP Practice and Imperial, Dr Caroline Taylor and Donna Rowe from the National Association of Primary Care, and a team of CHWWs working on the frontline of London’s communities.

“Minister Padilha’s visit to the CHWW programme in Westminster was a poignant reminder of the importance of our mutual, bidirectional and collaborative approach to NHS service transformation with our Brazilian colleagues” said Dr. Harris. “We look forward to deepening and widening this work through our municipal twinning arrangement with the SUS and the NAPC.”

A shared vision for primary care

The programme highlighted the long-standing collaboration between Imperial, the NHS, and Brazilian partners including Fiocruz, one of Latin America’s leading public health research institutions. The delegation heard about joint research through the ResiliSUS project, led by Professor Alessandro Jatoba, and discussed opportunities to scale innovations in primary care.

The collaboration is a true example of bidirectional learning. The implementation of CHWW teams in England is providing valuable insights into the determinants of resilience in primary care, while consolidated NHS practices—such as patient registration and referrals, coordination across different levels of care, and technological support—offer important lessons for Brazilian partners. Both sides are also exploring opportunities to strengthen CHWW training, focusing on context-specific approaches and resilience-building.

Minister Padilha reflected on this shared history, noting that the NHS inspired the creation of the SUS. “SUS is the NHS’s younger brother,” he said. “We’re very happy to now inspire the future of the NHS, especially through this model of mutual learning and shared experience.”

Closing reflections from Minister Padilha underlined the strategic importance of the partnership. Both countries face shared challenges from health inequalities to climate-related pressures on health systems and recognise that international collaboration can accelerate solutions.

The visit concluded with a tour of Millbank GP Practice, giving the delegation a first-hand view of how CHWWs are embedding themselves in UK primary care teams to improve access, trust, and community wellbeing.

Looking ahead

For Imperial, the day reaffirmed the university’s role as a global convenor for health innovation, connecting academic research with policy, practice and communities around the world.

“This partnership exemplifies how science and collaboration can drive real-world impact,” said Professor Deborah Ashby. “By bringing together expertise from both countries, we can shape healthier futures for generations to come.”

Partnerships in Brazil continue to be of strategic importance to Imperial. Alongside collaborations in health, Imperial researchers and partners are working closely across multiple areas of shared priority, including climate action.  Imperial helped convene the Brazil–UK Pre-COP30 Dialogue: From Science to Policy on 22–23 October, bringing together leading experts, policymakers, businesses and civil society from both countries to bridge the gap between scientific research and policymaking.

The dialogue focused on ambitious, just and effective climate action ahead of COP30, with sessions exploring topics from land use and urban resilience to biodiversity, forests, and the intersection of climate and health, further evidence of the depth and breadth of the UK–Brazil partnership.