Lnoppen - Corridor of Insights

2nd Annual Africa Hospital Expansion Summit

September 4th & 5th, 2014, Lusaka, Zambia

The hospital sector is undergoing undeniable growth throughout the entire African continent, stimulated by increased active government focus on healthcare expansion. By 2016, it’s predicted that there will be 500,000 to 650,000 beds built for the Sub-Saharan healthcare market and investments made up to 35 billion USD towards healthcare. In Zambia alone, the government is constructing district hospitals in every region and is planning for 400 new
medical centers.
Opportunities to supply hospital equipment and other products and services are unprecedented. At the 2nd Africa Hospital Expansion Summit, government officials, healthcare associations, doctors, public and private hospital managers and investors discussed with consultants, architects, medical companies, equipment providers and service groups, the market and project developments. The second edition of the Africa Hospital Expansion Summit opened its doors on the 4th September at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia. After a welcome cocktail on Wednesday evening, the conference was officially declared opened by Dr. Davy Chikamata, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Zambia. The two day event, which is was organized by Noppen in partnership with the East Africa Healthcare Federation, hosted delegates from 13 different African countries, as well as representatives from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East

On Wednesday evening, the delegates were welcomed by Noppen and EAHF at the Intercontinental hotel in Lusaka, were the two day summit took place. First introductions were made and Dr. Thakker, Founder of EAHF gave a short speech defining the aim of the conference.

The two-day conference was then kicked off on Thursday
September 4th by Dr. Thakker, who presented us with an outlook of the Africa Healthcare Sector and the differences within the industry across the continent. His holistic overview was then followed by more focused views on different African countries. First, Dr. Davy M. Chikamata, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Zambia showed the delegates the different innovations the ministry of health has planned out for its hospitals and clinics around the country. He touched not only upon infrastructure and medical equipment for the public facilities but also looked at the modernization of the tertiary and general hospitals and the construction plans for new district hospitals and health posts. Also the ministry of health is looking into mobile services, health care financing, and PPP opportunities.
After taking a look at the public hospital sector in Zambia, Dr. Margaret Siwale, President of the Private Hospitals Association of Zambia and Director of the Lusaka Trust Hospital introduced us to the private player involvement in the market and explained why private sector involvement is so important. After sketching the healthcare and hospital situation in the host country, focus was placed on how to ensure Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) for all Africans. Dr. Kayitesi Kayitenkore, President of the Rwanda Medical Association, first gave an overview of the African countries that already provide UHC and defined the requirements needed to introduce this in other countries. She then continued with the sad example of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and how this crisis exposes the shortcomings in the healthcare sector. Right after the first tea break, focus was shifted to practical hospital design and turnkey solutions for hospitals. First, Mr. Malcolm Campbell, showed a case study of the Khayelitsha hospital which was the first new hospital to be built in the Western Cape in over four decades. He explained the design and different features in detail, and showed the delegates what they should take into account when looking to build a new hospital.

The richly filled morning session was concluded by Mr. Benedikt Koller, Member of the Management and of the Founding family of MMM Group spoke about the Adamawa German Medical Center in Jimeta-Yola, Nigeria. This center was prefabricated in Germany and then fully transported all the way to Nigeria. He explained the modular building technology more in details and showed the attendees how MMM group can help with providing full round turnkey solutions in Africa. Mr. Koller was accompanied by Ms. Ndileka
Mandela, Founder of the Thembekile Mandela Foundation. She spoke about her partnership with MMM group and the goals of her foundation to help improve education and health within Africa.

The afternoon session continued on the planning and design topics, before shifting to hospital insurance and capitations plans. Within the planning & design session, Mr. Johann Loubser, Corporate Director of Sakhiwo Health Solutions, gave a holistic overview of planning, designing, and constructing a new health facility. He also showed the importance of adequate health technology, organizational development, and logistics within that facility and looked at change and facility maintenance. The next session was introduced by Dr. Ian Clarke, Chairman of the Uganda Healthcare Federation and Chairman & CEO of the International Medical Group. He looked at the different health insurance and capitation schemes and defined the benefits and disadvantages of the different possibilities. Dr. Clarke also suggested an aggregate model and collaboration between health insurers and HMOs. After his detailed presentation, Ms. Florence Kazhanje, Managing Director of Metropolitan Zambia led the vibrant panel discussion which looked at capitation closer and
gave insights from both the insurance side - represented by herself and Mr. Mark Achola, Managing Director of AAR Health Kenya - and the hospital side - represented by Mr. Galumgbe Rashid, Director of Munguchi Medical Center Uganda and Dr. John Erlwanger, General Manager of Premier Service Claybank Hospital Zimbabwe. Also Dr. Ian Clarke took place in the panel discussion. From the discussion and the many questions from the audience, it became clear that capitation is something that still needs a lot of attention and lots of work needs to be done in finding an adequate solution for all.

After the last tea break of Day One, the topics focused on discussed quality assurance and HR issues in the healthcare facilities. Firstly, Ms. Anna Pascall, Health Coordinator at First Quantum Minerals (FQM) shows how she is working within FQM towards a holistic health framework in the mining company. She explained the network FQM works with to ensure healthcare for its employees and family, and gave more insights into the hybrid system, that FQM deploys, where it works with external healthcare providers while maintaining involvement in the decisions making process. After her presentation, other Healthcare & Hospital Managers from various mines in Zambia and Botswana shed light on the way they look to provide healthcare services to their employees and the community.
Then, Dr. Tony De Coito, Managing Director at Healthshare, addressed the issue of how to ensure and measure hospital performance and quality standards within the hospitals. He went into detail about employee training plans and how to ensure that staff receives the correct training.

Finally, the first conference day was concluded by Ms. Lucy Nkirote, Technical Advisor PPPs for Health from Africa Capacity Alliance. She spoke about the challenges that African hospitals have to retain skilled workforce and the efforts ACA is delivering to ensure healthcare professionals have enough opportunities within their own country and enough training skills are provided.

Following this presentation, Dr. Thakker summarized the first day of the conference and invited all delegates to a private evening meeting which concentrated on forming a unified private healthcare sector in Africa.
Representatives from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa engaged themselves in working together towards forming healthcare federations within their respective countries with the aim to contribute to a unified Africa Healthcare Federation.

Countries from Southern Africa (such as Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Mauritius)
participated in the private meeting with EAHF officials in forming umbrella private healthcare federations with the
ultimate aim towards Africa Healthcare Federation, which will be a world class membership organization to engage
governments and stakeholders in improving the overall healthcare environment for private business in the health
sector.

The evening meeting was led by Dr. Amit N Thakker, Founder of EAHF and CEO of KHF, Dr. Ian Clarke, Chairman of Uganda Healthcare Federation and Founder of the International Medical Group. The Directors of Kenya Healthcare Federation included Mr. Mark Achola of AAR Health Services and Dr. Kanyenje Gakombe of Metropolitan Hospitals. Rwanda Healthcare Federation was represented by the President of Rwanda Medical Association, Dr Kayitesi Kayitenkore.

Representatives from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa engaged themselves in working together towards forming healthcare federations within their respective countries with the aim to contribute to a unified Africa Healthcare Federation.

Friday started with a morning session on financial investment in healthcare facilities. First up was Ms. Merissa Kambani, President of the Private Hospitals Association of Zimbabwe and Managing Director of the Avenues Clinic. She gave an overview of the private hospitals in Zimbabwe and the role the Association plays in the country. She addressed the challenges such as uneven distribution of the hospitals, staff shortages, and lack of exposure, and offered possible solutions to finding a balance between public and private healthcare services within the country.

From private hospital involvement in Zimbabwe, we shifted to public healthcare services in Mozambique, which was presented by Dr. João Carlos de Timóteo Mavimbe, National Deputy Director of Planning and Cooperation of the Ministry of Health Mozambique. Dr. Mavimbe started off by giving an overview of the disease burden in Mozambique and the national health system in the country. How it is made up – 90% of healthcare is provided by the Ministry – and where the ministry finds it’s funding. Dr. Mavimbe concluded by shedding some light on the country’s health strategic plan for 2014 – 2019.

These two presentations on both public and private investment led way to an interactive discussion panel on Financing Healthcare Infrastructure. The panel, which was led by Mr. Peter Boere, Industry Specialist, IFC Advisory Services and hosted experts from DEG Invest - C Mr. Michael Fischer, head of the South Africa office - , the African Development Bank - C Mr. Neeraj Vij, Head Industries and Services Division -and PharmAccess Consultancy - Mr. Frank Poen, Director. They shared knowledge and tips on how to apply for funding and what to present when searching investment

The first morning session during which PPP was mentioned several times, was concluded by a case study from Dr. Karen Prins, Operations Director of the Queen Mamohato Hospital in Lesotho; the most well-known example of a PPP hospital in the African healthcare sector.
After a networking break, Dr. Lackson Chikoya, Deputy Managing Director of the University Teaching Hospital of Lusaka, presented an overview of the modernization works that have been going on at the hospital and the progress made to turning an old antiquated hospital into a renewed modern unit. This presentation showed the efforts that the ministry of health is taking to update its healthcare system across the country.

Friday also saw three speakers presenting on the benefits of using technology within hospitals. Mr. Cornelious Bernard, Managing Director of Ibhar Technologies, showed methods and tools of how Ibhar can help hospitals and clinics improve their operational efficiency. Ms. Judy Elaine Mugoya and Mr. Joseph Wahome, both Country Managers at Smart Applications, showcased their device which, based on biometrics, can identify the patient and ensure no insurance fraud is committed. Lastly, Dr. K.K. Gakombe, CEO & Managing Director of the Metropolitan Hospital in Kenya gave a detailed overview to the attendees of the ERP system that he personally designed and how that this system and hospital informatics in general can help increase operational excellence, quality of care whilst still ensuring ROI.
Other speakers on Day Two included Mr. Gift Cheembwe, Founder & CEO of Medmax Suppliers, who gave a very detailed presentation on the procurement process of healthcare equipment; Dr. Dumisani Bomela, CEO of the Hospital Association of South Africa, who spoke about infection control and emergency preparedness. Given the current situation in West Africa and Congo, he used the example of how the hospitals in South Africa get prepared for possible Ebola cases, but also generalized the approach to other infectious diseases. Mr. Anil K. Maini, Senior Advisor at Medanta Africare, presented on the experience of Medanta Africare in Africa and the plans that they have for further expansion and setting up more diagnostic centers.

Last but not least, Mr. Keith Bonsall, who had been chairing the second day of the conference, gave a somewhat controversial yet very well received presentation on low cost model hospitals and shared his view on how costs can be cut, while patient care remains at the same level. Mr. Bonsall then led the final panel discussion that looked at what had been discussed over the past two days and which measures and future investments should be taken out of this towards the future of African healthcare. Panelists were Ms. Karen Sichinga, Executive Director of the Churches Health Association of Zambia, Mr. Alex Alexander, Managing Director of CIEL Healthcare, Mauritius and Prof. Edmund N. Delle, CEO of Rabito Clinic in Ghana. Also Dr. Amit N. Thakker, our partner and chairman of Day one joined in before drawing the event to an end.

Some highlights of the event:
At the two-day event, our Exhibitor Sponsor Fanem Regional Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa Fernando Aguiar Jacinto partnered with Gift Cheembwe the CEO of MedMax Suppliers and was invited by Dr. Davy M. Chikamata, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Zambia to a meeting at the Ministry’s office to discuss future partnership.

After the private evening meeting on Thursday, healthcare leaders from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa committed to working towards a unified sector, with the help of the EAHF executives. First contacts have already been made and in Zimbabwe, Dr. Margaret Maulana has already engaged counterparts from the Zimbabwe Medical Association to participate and share ideas for a future Africa Healthcare Federation.

Once again, Noppen would like to express a special thanks to the sponsors of the Africa Hospital Expansion Summit: Smart Applications, Sakhiwo Health Solutions, MMM Group, Medhold, Trifour Health/ Vetail, Linet, Fanem, Atlas Copco, Meyer-Haake, Transatlantic, VP Health Systems, Ibhar Technologies, Fabtech Technologies, Steris and Vital Quadro. We would also like to thank our Association Partner, the East Africa Healthcare Federation. We have no doubt that your contributions helped in making this event a success.

2nd Annual Africa Hospital Expansion Summit

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