Private aspirations

Credit: National Cancer Insitute

Last week, a private company landed a vehicle on the moon for the first time.  The rocket that powered the trip was also private.  They gave a ride to a government tenant, and in the long run the country will get the credit for the engineering wonder that has been achieved. Fifty years ago, no one would have believed that NASA would be chauffeured to the moon by private companies.  Today it is taken for granted.  The trail blazers have a capacity to make strange events mainstream, when they do not give up.

Long ago a friend shared an illustration that has stuck with me over the years: Government is the aircraft carrier on which private initiatives (jets) land and take off.   If it is moving in the right direction, an initiative can progress even when it is doing nothing. If it is moving in the wrong direction, it is dangerous for any initiative to land on it. And those which have no choice but to land, must have a strategy that negates the retrogression that landing brings.

The countries which have figured out how to synergise private and public, will thrive.  The countries which don’t, will continue to borrow from those who do.

“I was surprised when my one-page proposal was replied with a one-line refusal.”

Dr. Teddy Totimeh

Last year, after working in government for 20 years, I decided to go private.  I have always believed that specialty surgery will only develop in this country with private investment.  I am convinced that the only reason why neurosurgery in Ghana is 50 years behind cutting edge, is because there is little or no private money in it.  I also believe in the aircraft carrier model, so I reached out to a public hospital to provide neurosurgical services on really good terms.  I was surprised when my one page proposal was replied with a one line refusal. Over my last 7 months, I have realised that the refusal was a personal blessing in disguise.  Sometimes however, its conflicting when clients from that hospital land on my operating table, because it renders their prior refusal illogical.

As I slowly establish into purely private practice,  I am struck by how fertile the market is.  If there is one sector that has capacity to immediately bring foreign exchange into the country, it is the specialty health care sector.  In West Africa outside Nigeria, Ghana is the principal English speaking destination for all non-primary health care needs.  Every time I have looked at the numbers of specialty doctors in our coastal neighbours to the West, I have been struck by the blessing that Ghana has. I have had to treat clients from Sierra Leone, Liberia and more, because the queues in their countries for specialty care are long.  However, they have their prior civil strife to explain their low numbers, and we don’t.  I know some of the strategies they have to change this story and in the next 5 years one of those countries will have more surgeons per 100,000 than Ghana, if we continue to train at our current levels.

Whatever happens, having a Ghana-based private centre of excellence for specialty medicine with a well worked financial strategy is a no-brainer.  There is no way such a centre will fail, given the right support. And if such centres multiply, competition will bring prices down and increase traffic, because Ghana is already a preferred destination.  With the right strategy, we will not just have local experts having more to do and increasing their capacity to solve medical problems, but we will also have our Diasporan experts returning.  Medical entrepreneurship is the next big industry in Ghana.

If we will give it a chance.

*This article was originally posted on LinkedIn by Teddy Totimeh