King Faisal Hospital restructuring starts next month

Restructuring process is set to start at King Faisal Hospital after the official hand over to the new management, Oshen Healthcare Rwanda Limited, a subsidiary of Angolan company Oshen Group SA, yesterday. A journalist asks a question during the press conference. Timothy Kisambira The hand-over follows an agreement between the government, which wholly owns the facility, with Oshen Healthcare Rwanda Limited in April last year. The agreement covers financing, upgrades, operations and maintenance of the facility with an aim of turning it into a specialty regional referral hospital. A picture showing King Faisal Hospital Kigali. Timothy Kisambira According to King Faisal Hospital, Rwanda, chief executive Emile Rwamasirabo, following the handover, a restructuring process is set to begin toward the end of next month as the facility seeks to hire more specialists to improve services offered. Dr Rwamasirabo dispelled claims that the high staff turnover at the facility in recent months was a result of the oncoming restructuring, arguing it was largely due to labour market factors. Carlos Malet OSHEN HEALTH CARE MD (C)addresses media as Health minister Diane Gashumba(L)and DR Moneesh Arora group director Sphera Global HealthCare look on. T.Kisambira Although it is still not clear how the staff will be affected, the restructuring is set to affect staff across all levels. Under the agreement terms, Oshen Healthcare Rwanda is expected to upgrade the current infrastructure by refurbishing and extending buildings, renewing and extending the technology used in diagnostic treatment and overall hospital management. Dr Emile Rwamasirabo, the chief executive of King Faisal Hospital speaks to media. Timothy Kisambira The new management is also expected to leverage on the existing specialities and introduce new ones to create high performance in priority domains, jointly identified with the Government. The arrangement allows for a performance based concession to be continuously evaluated using multiple indicators, including; formulation of new centres of excellence and developing existing specialities. DR Moneesh Arora group medical director Sphera Global HealthCare (L) chats with Emmanuel Hategeka RDBs Chief Operations Officer after the press conference. T Other indicators include the introduction of the latest technology, building local medical capacity, maintaining international hospital accreditation and increasing both national and regional access to the hospital. Looking beyond contract duration Carlos Malet, the Oshen Healthcare director, said they took interest in the facility in 2013 and have over the years pursued relations with the Government of Rwanda and management of the facility. Health minister Diane Gashumba(L) minister of State in charge of Public Health and Primary Health Care Dr Patrick Ndimubanzi and Carlos Malet OSHEN HEALTH CARE MD chat after the meetin Malet said they aim to improve the referral facility to be able to address specialty cases, serving the country and the region. He said they were looking forward to long-term impacts beyond their five-year concession contract. “We will bring a management model that not only focuses on improving services offered and the way that King Faisal Hospital Rwanda operates but also that opens up the facility’s doors to the public,” Malet said. He said they had been building ties with major players in the health sector, including insurance companies and financial institutions to make the facility more accessible. The Minister of State in charge of Public Health and Primary Health Care Dr Patrick Ndimubanzi(L)chats with Health minister Diane Gashumba after addressing media T.Kisambira Malet said they were keen on affordability, whereby they were working to align systems and tariffs together with insurers and would also put up a foundation for most vulnerable patients. He added that the new management was looking into possibilities of interacting with an international network of doctors and healthcare practitioners to ensure that their staff have the best and latest skills. Asked if the firm has experience in running other major hospitals, the official said that they run several establishments in Latin America. Health minister Diane Gashumba said the takeover was an important milestone in improving the country’s health sector and would have multiple benefits, including innovation in the sector.

News

King Faisal Hospital restructuring starts next month