The health of nations

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Sobhi Batterjee, president and CEO of Saudi German Hospital Group.

The health gap mirrors the wealth gap - except where the Saudi German Hospital Group (SGHG) is concerned. Sobhi Batterjee, president and CEO, tells MT of surgery in Sana'a, and why budget is no object when it comes to getting medics to the masses.

Unusually, SGHG appears to split its interests between private hospitals and not-for-profit (NFP) facilities. Can you tell us about your business model?

There are four billion people at the bottom of the pyramid that cannot afford to pay [for healthcare] and no one is addressing them.

As large corporations, we should use our economies of scale and our research capabilities to come up with services that can address the requirements of these people.

Most people can buy things but you need to create a product or a service with a price that they can afford. For example, as a large construction company...[you] buy hundreds of thousands of tonnes of steel.

They could use their buying capacity to ask their supplier to give them 10,000 tonnes of steel at cost price in order to build housing for the poor. These sized companies can ask for tax breaks, compensation of power or water - in other words bring the cost down.

How do you maintain these hospitals while offering care at a price the patients can afford?

Because it will be on a fee-basis, but at cost prices. We will use our economies of scale, our knowledge and our contacts and we expect that the initial costs will be helped by donations.

We will in some cases use our own equity - and I think medical staff will be prepared to work for less because these organisations are not for profit.

After 20 years of managing hospitals we are able to produce 50-bed hospitals at US$5 million each, which is actually very cheap.

Are you able to include tertiary care with that budget?

We started with that in Yemen, with a tertiary care hospital. We created a US$100 million tertiary hospital to serve the African horn out of Sana'a and we are bringing patients from Sudan, from Eritrea, from Chad, from Somalia.

The World Bank told me to only go for primary care and secondary care in Yemen and I said no - these are humans that are entitled to have open-heart surgery, to have radiotherapy.

Has it been difficult to secure funding for specialist care in these developing markets?

Of course you will have difficulties with start-ups - we had difficulty in bringing the nuclear isotopes into Yemen because they have no system to treat radioactive materials.

We had to create a system and make sure that government authorities were involved.

We had difficulty in getting visas for people. But this is what it takes to be a pioneer - they pave the road.

Is it difficult to offer NFP hospitals in areas you have targeted for commercial expansion?

They are completely different markets. There is no conflict of interest between the two because it is a different market. Even if it is in the same town.

SGHG is currently building a hospital in Dubai. What market will that facility target?

All market segments, from the rich to the poor.

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