Diamond Bank Partner Philips on Developing Quality Healthcare Brands

Small and medium-sized private clinics that want to acquire innovative medical technologies and services and develop their own brands can now do so from Royal Philips with finance support through the Diamond Mediloan QualityCare Programme. This was made possible recently when Diamond Bank Plc launched a partnership with Royal Philips, the Medical Credit Fund, a section of the PharmAccess Group to improve access to quality healthcare in Nigeria.

Loans under this program are backed with business and medical quality assessments plus training implemented by the Medical Credit Fund using the Safecare standards. As such, clinics can expand and improve the quality of their services, giving more people access to quality healthcare.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of healthcare facilities are small, private health clinics and diagnostic centres. Most small and medium-sized private clinics in Nigeria cannot obtain financing from banks due to the perceived high investment risks. As a result, they are not able to invest in medical equipment, carry out necessary renovation works or recruit qualified personnel. At the same time these clinics serve more than half of the population in Nigeria, primarily low-income earners.

Diamond Mediloan QualityCare Programme addresses the issue of healthcare practitioners who don’t have access to mobile ultrasound equipment which enables them to carry out relatively straightforward but critical examinations during pregnancy. The mobile ultrasound equipment can also be taken to rural villages to screen women that are not able to reach the clinics. The clinics will also be eligible to obtain loans to acquire patient monitoring and X-ray systems from Philips for the examination and treatment of patients.