The School of Medicine and Dentistry under the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana organized a talk dubbed “Opportunities in Private Healthcare Delivery Industry”. The talk was to encourage the Graduating Class of 2017on entrepreneurship. The main speaker was Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor.

The talk came was held on Friday, September 15, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. in the Examination Hall of Charles Easmon Building, College of Health Sciences. The Dean, School Administrator and Head of Department of Child Health were in attendance.The Dean of School of Medicine and Dentistry, Prof. Margaret Lartey in her welcomed address entreated the Class of 2017 to desire to be entrepreneurs rather than depend on government solely for employment after their mandatory housemanships.

The talk was moderated by Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor, an alumnus of the School and a Chief Executive Officer of New Crystal Health Services. New Crystal Health Services consists of 6 hospitals, 2 diagnostic centres among others. Dr. Amegbletor has also endowed prizes for the best graduating students in Radiology and Psychiatry and 3 more for students in the business school. Each prizes was USD $700 and tenured for 5 years.

In his address, Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor said the theme was significant in the context of the recent adopted framework of government to deliver on national development through public private partnership. He argued that the private sector in the country’s healthcare landscape is now assuming the centre stage. The need of the hour is to identify and provide quality healthcare at minimal cost to a large population profitably and ethically. These may include production of quality manpower, technology-enabled solutions like mobile healthcare and adoption of low-cost drugs and vaccines. Going forward, the action agenda is to foster a multi-stakeholder collaborative approach with a common objective in providing healthcare to masses.

He touched on key challenges facing the delivery of healthcare in the country. They include:

• High population growth
• Poorly developed healthcare systems
• Increasing non communicable diseases
• Limited resources
• Limited collaborations by industry players
• Challenges with quality

He maintained that due to rising income levels, ageing population and growing health awareness a change in attitude towards preventive healthcare would be expected to boost healthcare services demand in future.

Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor noted that the healthcare sector is diversifying and opportunities are emerging in every segment, be it providers, payers or medical technology. With growing competition, organisations are cognisant of new challenges and are looking to explore the latest business dynamics and trends impacting their segment. New players are building their entry strategy and domestic players are exploring new care models to stay ahead. The opportunities that exist in healthcare delivery system includes:

·         Leveraging ICT

·         Increasing Insurance penetration especially from private sector

·         Unexplored areas in healthcare

·         Increasing interest in Public Private Partnership

 Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor was of the view that considering the tremendous pace by which healthcare is growing, the graduating Class of 2017 should focus on establishing private health business through:

·         Group Practice

·         Joint Ventures

·         Public Private Partnership

·         Mergers and Acquisition

·         Technical Partnership / Franchise

·         Medical Real Estate

·         Telemedicine

·         Public advocacy and Lobbying

He caution the graduating Class of 2017 not to be scared of FAILURE as it is an opportunity to assess and revise one’s strategy to success. He also entreated the School to introduce Customer Service into the curriculum so as to sensitize potential doctors on excellent service delivery as a key player for gaining competitive edge.

Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor assured the Class of 2017 of his company’s willingness to support young doctors who wants to branch into private healthcare.

At the end of the talk, the President of the graduating Class of 2017 thanked Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor for given them practice experiences and exposing them to opportunities in the Private Healthcare delivery industry.