Transfer of hospital engineering knowhow from Germany to developing countries

Abstract

The paper ‘Transfer of Hospital Engineering Knowhow from Germany to Developing Countries’ tackles two vital interests of the German government: development aid and foreign trade support. These two areas can complement each other in the field of hospital construction in developing countries. This is very important since hospitals do not only provide and help improve health services but also stabilize local economies by offering employment. Through many positive ties hospitals improve health and welfare on a wide scale and thus work towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. However, governments around the world cannot provide enough resources to ensure the best possible health services. In fact, some can hardly offer basic care. Therefore, the private sector is needed for funding and skills to improve and extend health provision. One approach here is to create public-private partnerships (PPPs) to utilize management methodologies while ensuring integration into the local health system. Both the concept of PPPs taking over governmental provision and the approach to provide health care through hospitals as development aid are common practice. Yet, the combination of both is rare, so that experience from other sectors has to be adopted to gather lessons learned. The concept is very complex and many risks are involved. Nevertheless, it is a promising approach which undoubtedly will increase access to health care and should therefore be promoted far more than it currently is. Governments need to establish complete frameworks and encourage participation by not only giving support to full projects, but already during experimental stages (e.g. feasibility studies, pilots).