By Sarah Hu Dleston

Just weeks after resigning from the board of Central African Mining and Exploration Company (Camec), businessman Phil Edmonds and his partner, Andrew Groves, have announced plans by their new company to build more than 15 boutique hospitals in Africa.

The hospitals, to be built by their company, African Medical Investments (AMI), will serve the expatriate mining and business community who require easy access to high-end medical care.

When he opted out of Camec, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Edmonds was paid £8m for his 1,43% stake in the miner.

Edmonds has previously made a lot of money in Asia, but now says his eyes are on Africa.

“I like to travel north to south and stay roughly in the same time zone,” he said last week.

“I believe that there is so much to be done on this continent to make it attractive to investors and make it more user-friendly.”

Already, a new 30-bed facility has been built in Dar es Salaam and, last week, another medical and trauma centre and a Well Woman clinic were launched in Maputo, in Mozambique.

Like the Dar es Salaam facility, the Maputo clinic offers 30 high-class beds including two intensive care unit beds, two neonatal intensive care incubators and a full trauma unit. Two operating theatres, two delivery rooms, one for water births, occupational health services and facilities are being built.

The Maputo facility will have only the second tele-radiology facility in Africa — the first was in the Dar es Salaam clinic — meaning that top radiologists the world over can report on X-rays, CT scans and ultrasounds.

A helicopter rescue service in Mozambique ensures that emergency cases can be collected and brought to Maputo, removing the need for expensive evacuation to SA.

Edmonds, the company’s chairman, and Groves, AMI’s executive director, complement each other.

They stumbled on this new business a year ago through Vivek Solanki, a Zimbabwean-born and South African- trained trauma doctor whom Groves, now AMI’s CEO, was acquainted with.

“The plan is to have 15-20 of these clinics strung across Africa, so that expats and locals with medical insurance have access to the finest healthcare. I believe that, thanks to our investments in Tanzania and Mozambique, we are paving the way for other investors to place their confidence in these countries,” Edmonds said.

“There is a dearth of investment in the areas that support the mining and related industries. Housing, healthcare and agriculture are all areas in Africa that need investment.”

Edmonds said each clinic cost £6m to build and equip, excluding the land. “The money for this is raised on the London AIM market,” he said.

“AMI has the support of a good selection of top international medical aids, including Bupa, which welcome the fact that patients will not have to be evacuated to SA.”

Source: Business Day