o combat infectious diseases,
nations need capable doctors and
nurses and medical supplies. But
that’s not enough. Adequate healthcare
facilities—the clinics, hospitals and treatment centers providing beds and sterile
environments—are also vital to contain and
eradicate threats.
As the Ebola virus spread in Guinea, Sierra
Leone and Liberia last year, the countries’
health infrastructure was quickly overrun by
need. Outside organizations, including the
U.S. military, stepped in to set up makeshift
treatment facilities.
Public health officials in Nigeria—which
successfully contained its Ebola outbreak last
year—are aware of the gaps in the country’s network of public hospitals and healthcare centers that
provides most people with care. In Cross River State
in the country’s southeast, that network is particularly deficient: There were just 0.5 hospital beds per
1,000 people in 2011, compared to 8. 2 in Germany
and 2. 9 in the United States. And there are just 0.21
doctors per 10,000 patients in the state—one-fifth
the sub-Saharan African average.
“In the Nigerian healthcare system, disparities
often exist between local care and international
care,” says James Cohick, COO, CURE Management Services, a healthcare management firm based
in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
By addressing those disparities, the Calabar Specialist Hospital project will likely save lives. In Octo-
A Systemic Solution
“Politicians don’t
always honor the
commitments
made by their
predecessors, so
continuity of relationships is
really important.”
—James Cohick, CURE Management Services,
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA
CASE STUDY
PROJECT Calabar
Specialist Hospital
LOCATION Calabar,
Cross River State,
Nigeria
ORGANIZATIONS
Cross River State
government, UCL
Healthcare Services
Ltd., CURE Manage-
ment Services, the
World Bank’s Inter-
national Finance
Corporation
ber 2013, the Cross River State government launched
a US$40 million project to build a 105-bed hospital
in Calabar, the state capital. It selected the World
Bank’s International Finance Corporation to facili-
tate the project and UCL Healthcare Services—the
lead organization of a consortium of multinational
partners, including CURE Management Services—to
design and build it. The hospital was scheduled to
open in early 2015, and UCL is contracted to operate
the facility through 2023.
PHASING IN QUALITY CARE
The project was unique from the start. The first
public-private partnership (PPP) health project
between a state government and a hospital care
provider in Nigeria, it combines public-sector funding with private-sector management to achieve
optimum care at minimum cost. Sponsors hope the
