Africa Health: International leaders to discuss future of Maghreb region’s healthcare sector

AHIN Staff:
Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has appointed a new Minister of Health, as he continues with his objective of revolutionizing the country’s healthcare sector. While government investment, support and expenditure ensure a bright future for thesector, a genuine lack of hospitals, clinics and healthcare centers in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia suggests the region still has a lot of work to do.
This is at the core of the Maghreb Health Summit, endorsed by Algeria’s President Bouteflika,being held on October 2^nd and 3^rd in Algiers.
The initiative is hostinga variety of C-level healthcare decision makers including representatives from the Ministry of Health and private hospitals who want to meet global specialists, such as lead sponsor Roche, to source the latest solutions.
In total, an estimated US$ 850 million is available for investment over the two days with more than 40 international experts presenting the latest research and technological developments.
One of the summit speakers Dr Donald Ford, Chief Medical Officer at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Cleveland Clinic, says he understands the challenges at hand: “The perils and the types of chronic illness in the Maghreb are parallel with a lot of the other regions in the world including the USA; particularly with regards to diabetes. The most important thing is to establish a forward thinking but achievable strategy.  We need to learn what kinds of resources are available and what kind of commitments various countries can make.”
In addition, representatives of the summit’s platinum sponsor Philips,are conductingan educational workshop with a special focus on improving the healthcare reality in the region.
The summit is the brainchild of French business information group naseba. Fabien Faure, their Healthcare Series Director emphasised the potential in the region: “Maghreb’s countries realize they are slightly behind the western world in terms of healthcare quality, but investment in the best solutions and access to the right expertise will help them to advance the sector. This summit enables both global and local healthcare professionals to exchange ideas, collaborate and develop the region’s sector to achieve the aims of the respective Ministries of Health.”