A 4-hour forerunner event for launching a significant proposed project, Toon university Hospital, in Somaliland was held at London on Friday night, 11/03/2016 in which TUH Medical City PLC, a London-based company, directors met some members from the Somali community and briefed them about the project significance in detail and answered any question asked during presentation.
I summed up the presentation as an article form here below for the media and for the wider readers who may be shown interest in buying a share from the upcoming launching event of the project in London or other events in the future.
A proposed 750 bed Toon University Hospital (TUH) will be sited at Toon village, 18km South of Hargeisa, Somaliland and it will be the first purpose-built and sophisticatedly equipped hospital in Somaliland.
The TUH will deliver a wide-range of services to entire Population of Somaliland and can also cater for the localities beyond the boundaries of the country in respect of treatments and providing training to all medical staff and students (1500) from East Africa including Somaliland.
The TUH will be fully launched next year with a schedule of completing all the project phases (1-3) within five years’ time. Each phase of the TUH will be operational as and when it’s completed and the next phase will systematically follow its lead on the set time.
The first phase of the project will address the construction needs of essential care unit of TUH with 250 beds – covering from accident and emergency to general surgery operations. Also this phase will provide public health activities to underprivileged outreach areas by establishing a fully equipped and staffed mobile medical unit on a robust field truck: suitable to rugged and inaccessible areas.
The second and third phases (each with 250 additional beds) of TUH will involve the construction and the equipping of the secondary (diagnostic centre and accommodation) and the tertiary (High-dependency, intensive care unit and advanced diagnostics) care parts of the Hospital.
Mr Paul Dupee, the TUH Project Managing Director, presented in the meeting a draft design of the TUH which resembles a Wagon – wheel and a spoke outlay in which the main parts of the Hospital are on the hub and the rim while the Spokes connecting the passages to departments and shops.
Mr Dupee is a UK based expert Strategist on service Development plans for UK health services with an in-depth knowledge on business lifecycle operations and has a sound and professional track record which he accrued over a quarter of century period.
The project management team consists of important individuals with a wide-range of engineering, academic and health care management and building hospital experience including doctors who are currently based in the UK.
The team conducted a fact –finding mission to Somaliland in November this year and identified the major concerns and shortcomings in Somaliland healthcare which can be summed up as noticeable failings of and shortages: in Public health services (unsafe drinking water, low level of immunisation and lack of health education), in primary care (lack of control of medication and shortage surgeries) and in Hospitals (doctors and facilities poorly equipped).
The team director and CEO said that in addressing those shortcomings they proposed this $300 Million project which the funds expected to be derived from benefactors and investors (20:80 respectively) as a social enterprise project. The TUH will be ran with revenues from a devised medical aid scheme together with incomes from donations, investments and medical student fees and in that way it is envisage that the project would be sustainable for at least fifty years.
The project CEO, Mr Saeed Harir, highlighted that as a ‘’ Medi- City’’ a village complete with all amenity will be stablished in the vicinity of the hospital and it is projected that a tangible development will be evolved around the hospital in a relatively short period.
In general the TUH project will boost the economy of Somaliland as it provide employment, better health facility and services and gives opportunity for growth to related business as well as encouraging potential investors to similarly invest in Somaliland.
The fundraising for the project will be launched in central London in two weeks’ time and the event will be attended by respectable members in the British Government who will sponsor the project launching as well as Somaliland representatives who backs the Project as well. Therefore, all interested individuals and businesses are well come to the event when the date and venue announced.
By Mohamoud Arrale
