Private hospitals need strategic partnerships - Prof Akosa

Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, the Board Chairman of New Crystal Health Services (NCHS), has underscored the need for private healthcare facilities to seek strategic partnerships that will inject capital into their operations.

He said such capital injections would enable them to operate more efficiently to meet the health needs of the people.

Prof. Akosa said there was the need to upgrade the private healthcare sector through the adoption of a multi-disciplinary approach in their mode of operations to attract external funding to revamp their operations.

Prof Akosa, who is a former Director General of the Ghana Health Services, was speaking on the back of a 5.7 million dollar support from international investors to NCHS to enable it build two new state-of-the-art hospitals and give three of its other facilities a complete facelift.

The financial support consists of a loan of 2.5 million dollars from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank and equity of 3 million euros from impact investment group, Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) with headquarters in France.

Prof Akosa described the capital injection into the operations of NCHS as “timely and absolutely crucial”.

He said NCHS has a good business model that enabled it to attract the funds from the reputable international investors.

He added that it would enable the healthcare provider to continue to serve the low income group but also extend its quality healthcare to the middle and upper class within its catchment areas.

Prof Akosa urged other private healthcare providers to look outwardly for financial support in order to expand and support healthcare in Ghana.

Financial Consultant Mr. Sydney Casely-Hayford, who is also a Board Member of NCHS, said they were upbeat about the operations of the company going into the future.

He said the expected upgrade in infrastructure would enable it to serve more people as well as expand to other regions of the country.

“We see New Crystal giving quality healthcare in other towns and cities beside Takoradi, Tema and Ashaiman and actually becoming a centre of choice for patients from neighbouring countries”.

The Board of NCHS said it would continue to explore such strategic partnerships in order to achieve the company’s goal of becoming the preferred healthcare provider in the sub-region.

NCHS is expected to add new and essential services such as intensive care, paediatric care and (complex) surgical services as well as care for lifestyle diseases to its current offerings.

The healthcare provider currently has seven networked hospitals in Ashaiman, Tema and Takoradi, a modern diagnostic centre and other allied healthcare institutions.