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GE Announces New $14.7 million Commitments to Build
Healthcare Skills and Capacity in East Africa Sub-Saharan Africa will need to
create an average of 15-20 million new jobs per year over the next three
decades to meet the current growth - GE Africa Future of Work White Paper NAIROBI, Kenya, July 23, 2015/ -- Today, ahead of the Global
Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, GE (NYSE: GE) (http://www.ge.com)
announced a series of new commitments aimed at addressing some of the most
critical health challenges in East Africa through a sustained focus on skills
development and capacity building. Among the investments, GE announced: 1.
The establishment of the GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute in Kenya,
GE’s first-ever dedicated healthcare skills advancement center in Africa; 2. A
$1.7M GE Foundation grant for Biomedical Equipment Training and Safe Surgery
programs in Ethiopia. Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/ge.png As outlined in the GE Africa
Future of Work White Paper, launched today, entitled, Building Strong Workforces to
Power Africa’s Growth, Sub-Saharan Africa will need to create an
average of 15-20 million new jobs per year over the next three decades to meet
the current growth, presenting a considerable challenge to the labor market
given the low rates of formal employment.(1) Moreover, the global health
sector, especially in developing markets, is facing critical workforce
shortages,(2) with Africa ranking the lowest in the availability of health
personnel.(3) With 12% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s burden
of diseases, Sub-Saharan Africa has only 3% of the world’s health workforce.(4)
According to the White Paper, the African urbanization story underscores the
need for Governments and their partners to invest aggressively in enhancing
skills.(5) Farid Fezoua,
President & CEO of GE Healthcare Africa said, “Investing in the training
and education of healthcare professionals to strengthen capability building is
one of the greatest enablers for sustainable healthcare development. GE
Healthcare’s education strategy integrates technology and localization in the
design and deployment of tailored education solutions including the
establishment of new healthcare training centers, locally configured curricula
and a range of education partnerships with leading regional academic
institutions and global partners. As a major force for change, we aim to
increase access to localized education, training and skills development programs
for more healthcare workers across Africa.” 1.
GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute, Kenya Selected in February 2015 as a key
technology and solutions partner by the Kenyan Ministry of Health (MoH) as part of its ~USD 420 million healthcare
transformation plan, GE is committed to supporting knowledge-sharing and
capacity building in Kenya and across East Africa. As a cornerstone of the
mega-modernization program, GE will launch the new GE Healthcare Skills and
Training Institute in Kenya, representing a long-term investment of at least
$13 million over the next 10 years. With specialised GE Healthcare
training facilities across the globe, the centre is set to become GE’s first
dedicated skills development facility in Africa when inaugurated in Nairobi
later in Q4 2015 that will serve Kenya and the wider East Africa. The GE Healthcare Skills and
Training Institute will initially offer biomedical and clinical applications
training courses and over the longer-term will be expanded to offer leadership,
technical and clinical education courses, working with the MoH,
private healthcare providers and other educational partners, with the goal to
train over 1,000 healthcare professionals over the next 3 years. In East Africa, where there is a
significant shortage of qualified healthcare professionals, the localization of
vocational and leadership training courses aims to support the development of a
pipeline of future biomedical engineers, radiologists and technicians, helping
to reduce the skills gap, improve job prospects and build a solid national
healthcare system and private healthcare sector. The Kenya training center is part of GE Healthcare’s
global commitment to invest over $1 billion in the development and delivery of
localized offerings for the healthcare sector, including a new class of
technology-enabled training solutions by 2020. Moreover, as part of this
commitment, GE Healthcare aims to deliver enhanced training for over two
million health professionals globally that is expected to help healthcare
systems drive better patient outcomes and benefit more than 350 million
patients worldwide by 2020. 2.
Ethiopia Biomedical Equipment Training (BMET) Center of Excellence GE Foundation’s first Biomedical Equipment Training
(BMET) program in Ethiopia responds to the shortage of skilled healthcare
workers and functional medical equipment. The BMET Center of Excellence (COE)
builds on the success of prior BMET programming in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Honduras and Cambodia and expands the commitment by creating a COE within a
hospital setting to translate learning to actual work processes. The COE “workshop” will set a
benchmark for hands-on training and process replication, further strengthening healthcare
systems. Training participants will benefit from a well-rounded curriculum
including professional management and customer service skills, in-hospital
clinical application, asset management and financial reporting skills and
professional development. This three-year program grant will
help fund the development of the training to educate biomedical technicians in
Ethiopia to respond to the shortage of functional medical equipment, by
focusing on repairing – not replacing – equipment using available resources.
Programs such as these can help local hospitals increase availability of
medical equipment – such as incubators for infants – by up to 43% in some cases. 3.
Safe Surgery Program in Ethiopia With a significant training
component, the GE Foundation commitment to improving safe surgery in Ethiopia
will be delivered through a new partnership with Lifebox,
a non-governmental organization focused on implementation of the WHO Safe
Surgical Checklist. This program aims to standardize safe surgery by increasing
access to and quality of surgery, reducing surgical complications, and
preventing patient deaths in the region. In collaboration with the Ministry
of Health, the program will help develop a surgical operating standards program
to serve as a pilot for a country-wide intervention, with local champions from
surgical, anesthesia, and nursing backgrounds serving as program leaders. The
program will also provide guidance, and help coordinate the implementation of
safe surgical standards with a focus on localization. The ultimate goal of the
partnership is to expand country-wide through collaboration with local partners
including ministries, NGOs, professional societies, teaching institutions, and
peer-to-peer networks. “Safe Surgery has long been a neglected area of global
health, and universal access to an essential set of surgical procedures would
prevent 1.5 million deaths around the world every year,” said Dr. David Barash, Executive Director, Global Health Portfolio, and
Chief Medical Officer, GE Foundation. “It’s tragic that millions of people are
dying from common, easily treated conditions like appendicitis, fractures or
obstructed labor because they do not have access to proper surgical care. We
are especially pleased to launch this partnership focused on access to safe
surgery with Lifebox, given their success
implementing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, leading to a nearly 60%
reduction in the total number of perioperative
complications in low-resource settings.” This program grant will be delivered over 18 months,
focusing on a Center of Excellence for health worker training, leadership
development, improvement in Safe Surgery Standards compliance, and create
guidelines for measuring surgical site infections, postoperative mortality, and
other complications. Earlier this year, the GE
Foundation participated in the launch of a major new Commission on safe surgery
published in The Lancet. The Commission notes that five billion people
worldwide do not have access to safe and affordable surgery and anesthesia when
they need it, and access is worst in low- and lower-middle income countries,
where as many as nine out of ten people cannot access basic surgical care. The
GE Foundation Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) training program was
highlighted in the Commission as a “best in class” model for sustainable
training. Distributed by APO (African Press
Organization) on behalf of General Electric Company. For inquiries, please contact: Tracy Doyle GE Foundation +1 262 853-6983 Lisa Farrugia GE Healthcare +90 530 387 1850 Note to Editors References: 1.
Building strong workforces to power Africa’s growth. The future of work in
Africa, White Paper. Marco Annunziata, Chief Economist, GE and Shlomi Kramer, Senior Economist, 2015. 2.
Transformative Scale Up of Health Professional Education, World Health
Organization, Sept 2013. 3.
Africa Development Bank Group, April 2014. 4. Ibid
reference 3 5.
Education Solutions for Better Health Outcomes White Paper, GE Healthcare, C.
Barry and A. Lotring, 2015. 6. Ibid
reference 1 SOURCE General Electric Company |