Business & Money | Tuesday 3 October, 2017 5:09 pm |

Saudi Arabia’s Anfas Medical Care (AMC) and GE Healthcare have signed a SAR 113 million (US$30 million) agreement supporting AMC’s brand-new 120-bed specialty facility, that will cater to chronic pulmonary patients requiring long-term rehabilitation and intensive care. The innovative, performance-based partnership with GE will drive significant value for patients, Anfas Medical Care and the Saudi healthcare sector at large. The hospital, powered by GE, will be based in Riyadh and is set to open in 2018 in collaboration with Houston Methodist Hospitals. This partnership has been driven by GE Healthcare Partners, the management consulting arm of GE healthcare.   HH

 

The comprehensive GE solution is a new approach for both the Kingdom and the region’s health sector, combining technology provision, equipment servicing and management under an innovative ‘Managed Equipment Services’ (MES) framework, which is designed to enable improved procurement planning, asset management and financing predictability. In addition to the technology partnership, GE will provide advisory services to implement the latest clinical workflows and operational processes, which will deliver increased capacity and patient throughput, high quality care and reduced hospital length of stay. For AMC, this long-term partnership will allow them to leverage the appropriate GE capabilities needed to reach their strategic operational, clinical, and financial goals. 

 

Dr. Mamdouh Albaqumi, Founder & CEO of AMC, said: “This partnership model presents an entirely new framework to accelerate the development of private sector healthcare services in the Kingdom, allowing us to scale up our operational and technical levels to world-class standards. It will enable us to facilitate better diagnosis and patient monitoring for our physicians, and enable us to always be at the forefront of cutting edge medical technology for the benefit our patients.”

 

Jalil Juha, President & CEO, GE Healthcare Saudi Arabia, added: “Through this new model of healthcare delivery for Saudi Arabia, we are providing comprehensive, long-term support to our partner in building a robust and sustainable healthcare infrastructure. The MES model brings many core strengths that improves quality, reduces cost and increases access to healthcare delivery. With this agreement, GE and AMC can further contribute to the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 to drive quality and efficient healthcare services, as well as supporting the Ministry’s focus on nurturing a buoyant private healthcare sector.”

 

The partnership follows the recent formation of a new consortium led by AMC for the development of a brand-new Healthcare Village in Jeddah, set to include a rehabilitation, neurology and sports injury center, and long-term paediatric hospital. The consortium includesDallah Albaraka as the strategic partner, Aldukheil Financial Group as the financial advisor and AMI Saudi Arabia Ltd. as the local operations partner on the development. GE has been selected as the consortium’s key technology and solutions partner.

 

Hisham Al Bahkali, President & CEO, GE Saudi Arabia & Bahrain, said: “Healthcare is an important part of GE’s integrated portfolio in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and this partnership represents a significant step forward in GE’s long-term commitment to supporting the development of the sector in line with Vision 2030.”

 

Healthcare services in the Kingdom are witnessing significant change led by Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan for the sector, along with the Ministry of Health’s National Healthcare Project and National e-Health Strategy. This is in response to the increasing cost of healthcare delivery, increase in population and the rise in incidence of lifestyle-related diseases, particularly diabetes, obesity, hypertension, high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases. 

 

Ushering in comprehensive change, the National Transformation Plan envisages a greater role for private sector providers in healthcare delivery, with the goal of increasing private sector contribution to the total healthcare sector spending to 35 percent in 2020 from the current 25 percent. To this end, the Ministry of Health has recently announced the Private Sector Participation Program to attract private sector investment in areas of Primary Care, Long-term Care, Rehabilitation and Home Care, to name a few.