Project Name: South Africa:  Eerste River Medical Centre

Region: Sub-Saharan Africa

Sector: Health Care Services

Project Number: 8042

Projected Board Date: February 15, 1997

Company Name: Eerste River Medical Centre (Pty) Ltd

Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders

The project’s main sponsor is ER Management Services, a company controlled by four Mohamed brothers (Hoosain, Ameen, Faeez and Dr. Zaid) and four other entrepreneurs. Other shareholders of ER Management Services are Dr. Alfred Liddle and Dr. Roderick Miller, both leaders of the Eerste River medical community, and two other brothers; Jerome Ramages, a lawyer and Dr. Leslie Ramages a Cape Town medical doctor.

Project Cost including proposed IFC investment

Project Cost: US$5.0 million equivalent
IFC investment: US$0.72 million equity

Location of project and Description of Site

The project will be located in Eerste River, in the Cape Town metropolitan area.

Description of Company and Purpose of Project

The project is to build and operate a 123 bed Medical Centre in Eerste River to meet unsatisfied demand for good quality medical care in that part of the Cape Town metropolitan area. The Centre will offer general inpatient and outpatient medical care and provide a road range of specialist services.

Project Development Impact

South Africa’s public sector medical facilities have become overburdened since opening up to members of all racial groups.  Private hospitals are helping to fill the gap in this market.  The government has expressed a desire to leverage the resources available in the private sector by forming partnerships with private hospitals referring patients from the state sector for treatment in private facilities and bearing the cost of such referrals. ERMC has been selected as the pilot for this proposal.  The project should provide a good demonstration effect for future public-private sector collaboration in South Africa’s health care sector.

Environmental Category and Issues

This is an environmental review category B project.  Environmental, health and safety issues associated with this project include medical materials handling, disposal of medical waste, power and water supply, hygiene and implementation of good hospital management practices, CFC’s, employee health and safety training and fire protection.  A professional hospital management team is to be contracted and an environmental health and safety plan is under preparation.

The ERS is expected to be available in the Public Information Centre on/or about January 10, 1997.

Date SPI sent to PIC: December 26, 1996

For additional information contact: Corporate Relations Unit
Telephone: (202) 473 7711
Facsimile: (202) 676 0365
Environmental documents for this project are available at http://www.ifc.org and from the World Bank InfoShop (http://www.worldbank.org/html/pic/aboutinfo.html).