French Healthcare Association announces the completion of the very first “Healthcare Microsystem” in Ivory Coast. This project, in collaboration with the “Healthcare Export federator” and the Mutualité Française, aims to improve access to quality healthcare in the country. The country also benefits from strong support from French Healthcare ecosystem in the fight against falsified and substandard medicines.
The “Health Microsystem” concept is an innovative model for health centers, designed in 2018, to offer mutual financing and democratic management, with strong local involvement. Its aim is to overcome the lack of resources that limits the population’s access to healthcare and medical equipment. This model integrates healthcare facilities and funding mechanisms into a cohesive system, in which the provision of quality care is managed on a mutualist basis, combined with a mutual insurance company to pool funding.
On July 18, 2024, French Healthcare Association brought this concept to life in Abidjan, with the inauguration of the first “microsystem” at the health center of MUMAP, the mutual insurance company of PROSUMA, a major retailer in Ivory Coast. The center will offer primary care as well as specialties such as imaging, cardiology, rheumatology and gynecology.
Healthcare microsystem: pooling resources to improve healthcare services and accessibility in Ivory Coast
The Mutualité française National Federation(care, mutual insurance and support network), a member of French Healthcare Association, has joined forces with the Social Strategy Support Program (PASS) – a branch of Mutualité Française based in Abidjan – and the Oxance health center network on this project.
Other French Healthcare Association member companies will soon be involved in the center’s equipment, consultancy, construction and tele-expertise services. The microsystem was inaugurated in the presence of Lancina MEITE, President of MUMAP (Plateforme des Mutuelles de Côte d’Ivoire), Karim FAKHRY, Deputy Managing Director of PROSUMA, Eric CHENUT, President of Mutualité Française, and Jean-Patrick Lajonchère, Healthcare Export Federator for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We imagined the healthcare microsystem to pool the financial resources imported by mutual insurance companies with their contributors. Thanks to their partnership with health centers within this microsystem, they will be better able to provide care.”
Jean Patrick Lajonchère – Health Export Federator.
A “charter for a French-speaking network of health centers” was signed on this occasion by other Ivorian mutual societies: the mutual society for agents of the General Tax Directorate (MADGI), the customs mutual society (MUDCI) and the teachers’ mutual society (MUPEMENET) of Ivory Coast. It includes cooperation with the Mutualité Française and French health centers, as well as links with French Healthcare Association and its members, to enable the health centers created to become “ healthcare microsystems ”.
«We’re going to benefit from a great deal of information in terms of assistance and management, which will enable us to keep up to date and move forward so that our health centers are not outdated or obsolete.». Lancina MEITE – MUMAP’s President
French Healthcare Association members take part in the fight against substandard or falsified medicines in Ivory Coast
It is estimated that a large proportion of medicines sold in some sub-Saharan African countries are of inferior quality, or even falsified (up to 88% in Malawi).
These include antibiotics, antimalarials, anthelmintics and antiprotozoals – essential products whose poor quality represents a major health threat. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), up to 500,000 deaths a year in sub-Saharan Africa are linked to this scourge.
“The high prevalence of this type of medicine south of the Sahara is mainly due to poor regulation of the medical products distribution market, the development of free trade, insufficient registration, high demand and poor import standards” explains Agence Ecofin.
Côte d’Ivoire is no exception. As part of its support for Côte d’Ivoire’s strategy to develop its healthcare system, Le Club Santé Côte d’Ivoire has announced that it is joining forces with the Côte d’Ivoire Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority and the CFAO Healthcare group, to combat the falsification of medicines and its health consequences (overdosing, underdosing, side effects, etc.). The club thus confirms its status as a partner of choice for the country’s health authorities, under the aegis of the French Healthcare brand.
This cooperation will involve several French partners who are members of the French Healthcare Association: Servier (West and Central Africa subsidiary, Sanofi, and the trade association LEEM (Les entreprises du médicament). Together, these players aim to “strengthen regulations and ensure the safety of treatments in Africa”, announced Club Santé on August 27.
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