Kenya has potential to become global health hub
What you need to know:
- Experts are looking at Kenya as an innovation hub for how best to provide healthcare in low and middle income countries.
No wonder, international private investors are showing increased and strategic interest in Kenya as a health market.
In the past three years, the presidents and CEOs of both the Swiss pharmaceutical companies present in Kenya have visited the country.
When you think of Switzerland you normally think of chocolate, cheese, cows – and banks.
You might, therefore, be surprised to learn that Switzerland is also a global health hub.
Roche and Novartis, two of the five biggest global pharmaceutical companies, are located in Basel, Switzerland. With their innovative medicine and Research and Development (R&D) projects, they not only improve the lives of millions of patients around the world, but also offer thousands of people jobs.
INNOVATIVE
Taken together, both companies have more than 218,000 employees and invested more than $19 billion in R&D last year. They also immensely contribute to Switzerland’s reputation as an innovative country.
The pharma giants in Basel are fighting illnesses from cancer and high blood pressure to malaria and are now going into personalised healthcare. Geneva is home to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the main policy body when it comes to global health. The WHO is working on global health issues such as Ebola and other epidemics.
SPECIALISED
Switzerland as a whole has a performing health sector with public university hospitals and specialised private hospitals. People from all over the world travel to Switzerland for their special health needs.
Private health insurance is mandatory for all people living in Switzerland. This is not cheap, but it covers every single person on Swiss soil. A healthy population is more productive, and Switzerland’s population is one of the most productive worldwide.
EVACUATED
You see why I am talking about Switzerland as a global health hub?
But Kenya is a health hub, too, a regional one. In case of a severe medical emergency, my colleagues in the Swiss Cooperation Offices in Bujumbura and Kigali, for example, would be evacuated to Nairobi.
BIG FOUR
President Uhuru Kenyatta declared a year ago the introduction of universal healthcare as part of his ‘Big Four’’ agenda for his second and final five-year term. The other three pillar are housing, food security and manufacturing.
Devolution has been a driving force for healthcare expansion. When visiting seven of the northern counties at the beginning of this year, I was truly impressed to see the investments in healthcare by the administrations.
STRATEGIC
I saw newly built hospitals in Wajir, Lamu, Mandera and Marsabit counties. In Wajir, a medical training centre opened its gates to the local people and those from the neighbouring counties. Kenya is also indirectly supporting the fragile health systems in Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Kenya has a strategic position when it comes to quality control of the drugs transiting through the region.
PRACTITIONERS
Kenya has a diverse and dynamic private health sector. Academia and expert practitioners in health systems from all over the world are looking at Kenya as an innovation hub for how best to provide healthcare in low and middle income countries.
No wonder, international private investors are showing increased and strategic interest in Kenya as a health market. In the past three years, the presidents and CEOs of both the Swiss pharmaceutical companies present in Kenya have visited the country.
HUMAN RIGHT
A government can see the health sector from two different lenses. Health is a fundamental human right, which every government must strive to provide to the people it serves, including the very poorest people in every corner of the country. At the same time, there is an economic opportunity in health, when it is seen as a global service sector. You can make your country an attractive destination so that foreigners who can afford advanced healthcare will travel here routinely for such treatment. And in this second case, the provision of such advanced health services can be a major employer and source of income.
WELL-EDUCATED
I don’t see why Kenya can’t turn from a regional health hub into a global one. There is a growing middle class which will demand more and better health services. Kenyans are impressively well-educated, eloquent and very humane. Kenya’s climate is one of the best in the world. These are important assets for a thriving global health hub.
Why should people from all over the world not be willing to come to Kenya to seek modern healthcare? Why should Kenya not be the Florida of the world where rich people would like to retire – and look for good healthcare?
Dr Ralf Heckner is the Ambassador of Switzerland to Kenya.
