For 38-year-old Yemeni Khairy Aly Mohamed El Ramady, receiving dialysis twice a week was the difference between life or death. He typically received treatment for permanent kidney failure in his hometown of Hodeida, at the only public facility in the entire city. But the ongoing conflict in Yemen left the center severely overstretched and short of hemodialysis solution. In June, he was told he would have to wait at least a week for treatment. But that would be too late.
El Ramady was then referred to Saudi German Hospital (SGH) in Sana’a, which is responding to requests for medical support from the United Nations and others. It was an arduous journey of over 200 kilometers, but the medical professionals at SGH treated him successfully. The hospital also arranged to cover his payments, since he had lost his job due to the war—and he is responsible for a family of 11 people.
El Ramady is one of over 1 million patients the SGH hospital in Yemen has treated since it opened in 2006. Its parent company, the SGH Group, owns 10 hospitals with about 2,500 beds in four countries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It all started with a 300-bed general hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Since then, the SGH Group has established five hospitals in Saudi Arabia, three in the United Arab Emirates, one in Egypt, and one in Yemen. The network of facilities treated almost 1.8 million patients last year.
IFC played a catalytic role in SGH’s regional expansion with two investments consisting of a blend of loans and equity totaling $75 million. It was the first investment for IFC that complied with Sharia Law. Since 2007, IFC has supported the construction and equipping of two multi-specialty hospitals, each with 300 beds, in Sana’a, Yemen, and Cairo, Egypt. The SGH network is currently expanding to Morocco and Pakistan.
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