Netherlands to support selected health facilities in Ghana

A Senior Policy Advisor at Netherland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Sustainable Economic Development, Anouk Aarts, has assured support for some selected health facilities across the country.

Madam Anouk Aarts made this known during a tour of some hospitals in the Greater Accra Region, by officials of the Medical Credit Fund.

The tour was part of the launch of the Fund in Accra, on Wednesday. During the tour, she was accompanied by the Managing Director of the Medical Credit Fund, Arjan Poels.

Together with the Executive Director of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), Dr. Peter Yeboah, they inspected some hospitals to ascertain the impact of the Medical Credit Fund on the operations of the named hospitals.

Following the visit, she reiterated that her outfit is happy to partner such facilities, which fall under CHAG.

“What I learnt about this afternoon is how many challenges the Aneeja hospital faces and has to overcome. To actually run a hospital in a good way; especially around expenditure and income. And when there’s a mismatch between the two, there needs to be something to cover for that.

And I also better understand how the Medical Credit Fund can play a role in that, and also how important it is to buy equipment and to offer special services, that they would otherwise not be able to offer to the community here. So that’s what I learnt here this afternoon”, she said, after a visit to the Aneeja hospital at Tantra Hill.

On his part, the Managing Director of the Medical Credit Fund, Mr. Arjan Poels, expressed joy at the quality of service the Aneeja hospital renders to the residents of the community.

In his remarks, Mr. Poels stated that even though the Medical Credit Fund has been instrumental over the last decade, the visit to some of the partnering hospitals have given him a clearer idea of the specific areas which need further improvement. Such areas include insurance and working capital.

“It’s good to see how our money and our support is also really helping them to get to this level. And also very good to see, especially SafeCare. So it’s been very impressive to see that today. Sometimes when we are sitting in Amsterdam, it’s a bit far from the work that we’re doing here. So it’s very been good to work with the team”, he stated.

Speaking at the end of another tour at the Pentecost Hospital at Madina, Madam Anouk Aarts disclosed that, she is impressed with the hospital’s level of output, despite its limited space.

According to her, the fact that many patients are satisfied is a testament of the hospital’s performance and diversity. She added that, she is also pleased with the hospital’s cooperation with the government.

“Most impressive was the spirit to be transformative and innovative. It also showed how they’ve partnered with PharmAccess to do things that nobody else does and to do it in a different way. In a way that actually meets the needs of the people and to transform it based on the actual needs.

What I saw today at the Pentecost hospital is related to that because I was very impressed about how quickly they can respond to change in circumstances, the innovations that they adopt to become more efficient and effective”, she stressed.

As part of efforts to make health care delivery more sustainable and effective in Ghana, PharmAccess Group launched the second phase of the Medical Credit Fund (MCF II), on Wednesday at the Alisa Hotel here in Accra.

The MFC II, which is a €32.5m loan facility, is intended to reduce the challenges faced by small and medium sized healthcare companies in accessing loans and other credit facilities to widen their operations and expand their outreach.

Speaking at the launch of the loan facility in Accra on Wednesday, the Country Manager of the Medical Credit Fund, Derrick Ewudzie-Odoom, explained that the essence of the facility is to deal with the bottlenecks associated with health care financing in Ghana.

At the event, Madam Aarts reiterated that, “health is wealth”, therefore, the package by the MCF II is a welcome idea.

About MCF II

MCF recently announced the completion of EUR 32.5m fund-raise for its second fund (MCF II). The funding round was anchored by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which provided the first equity injection of EUR 7.5 million in January, 2021, to cater to the demand for loans during the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

Also participating in this funding round are international organizations such as CDC Group, FMO, SwedFund and Philips. In addition, MCF will benefit from a guarantee facility by U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which was initiated by the Health Finance Coalition (HFC) with support of the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and USAID’s Center for Innovation & Impact (CII).

Through blended finance, MCF uses catalytic capital from both public and private sources and is targeting to grow to EUR 80 million in the next few years and will support EUR 400 million in loans to health SMEs in the next decade.

The launch of MCF II marks the beginning of a new era. An era in which MCF will further grow its reach and impact. MCF II will deploy innovative digital finance solutions to increase investments in Africa’s health infrastructure and improve access to better primary healthcare services in Africa.

Starting in its current countries of operation (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda), and spreading its wings to other countries over time.

Source: Myjoyonline