In Cooperation with Prof. Mohammad Yunis – Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Grameen Bank.

The Saudi German Hospitals Group studies developing its first Not for Profit Hospitals at Bangladesh.

Prof. Muhammad Yunis - Nobel Peace Prize laureate for lending the poor through Grameen Bank, visited the Saudi German Hospital at Jeddah, where he explored the latest medical technology, state of art equipment providing a supreme level of healthcare services to the patients. Also, he toured the educational facilities and the auditorium equipped for patient education, and preventive medicine.

Prof. Yunis expressed his appreciation for the existence of such a world class level healthcare consortium, providing excellent integrated healthcare services through a dedicated team of healthcare professionals.

The visit of Prof. Yunis to the hospital is to be the first step for the realization of the intiative adopted by Eng. Sobhi Batterjee – Chairman of the Saudi German Hospitals Group, for designing, financing, constructing, equipping, and operating several Not for Profit Hospitals serving the poor communities within Middle East, and Africa. An agreement on this regard was recently signed between The Saudi German Hospitals Group and GE Healthcare – USA, during the ARAB HEALTH Exhibition – Dubai 2008. The hospital is designed to offer primary and secondary care, with 50 Beds capacity, requires Piece of land approximately 5.000 sqm, and a total cost of investment of 5 million USD.

Several National and International figures participated at the agreement signing ceremony, among which was Eng. Sobhi Batterjee – Chairman of the Saudi German Hospitals Group; Dr. Khaled Batterjee – Vice President of the Saudi German Hospitals Group; Mr. Omar Ishraq - President & CEO, Clinical System of GE Healthcare. Mr. Richard di Benedetto - President & CEO Africa Growth Market of GE Healthcare. Mr. Isam Moursy – CEO GE Healthcare Middle East.

Also, among the participants were Mr. Guy Ellena – Director of Healthcare & Education at the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank; Dr. Waleed Fadah – representative of the Islamic Development Bank; and Prof. Muhammad Yunis – General Director of Grameen Bank. All the participants confirmed their support for Eng. Batterjee’s human initiative, and their readiness to provide all kind of cooperation needed on the technical, as well as the financial aspects.

According to the signed agreement, GE Healthcare is willing to supply ECG monitors, X-ray and ultrasound scanners needed. Whereas The Saudi German Hospitals is providing its expertise for planning, designing, constructing, equipping, and operating the hospitals.

Dr. Khaled Batterjee - Vice President of the Saudi German Hospitals Group, commented “We will make sure that the subsidized fee scheme for providing healthcare services through these hospitals, will not affect its quality”. Dr. Khalid added “We expect our initiative to be met by big support of the hosting countries, in the form of providing the necessary piece of land, taxation and customs exemptions, subsidized charges for the general utilities as electricity and water, all necessary to develop such hospitals”.

After his visit to the Saudi German Hospital of Jeddah, Prof. Yunis explained “I am willing to support the Not for Profit Hospital Project, through Grameen Bank. I will be negotiating with the Bangladesh Government for the realization of the first of these hospitals there. I am comfortable with the intentions of the Saudi German Hospitals Group Management, and I believe this model of serving the poor should be adopted by all private entities”.

Eng. Batterjee ended saying” We have already received a lot of requests from Governments of Middle East and African Countries for developing our Not for Profit Hospitals, we will be starting our activities soon. We hope our initiative will attract the interest of different entities whether Governmental/Non Governmental Organizations, aiming to provide expertise and aid for this noble cause”.