Sir David Nicholson, former chief executive of the U.K.’s National Health Service, says he would’ve been a better head of the world-renowned health care system if he’d spent more time working in emerging markets. Now retired from the NHS and a chair of Abraaj Group’s impact committee, Nicholson is working to achieve the global investment firm’s goal of setting up 10 health care systems in developing countries by 2020.* If successful, Nicholson says Abraaj will have launched a model for medical service delivery that could revolutionize the drive for universal health care.
“The thing that drives me is, how do you get health care to everybody? We haven’t really found a constructive way yet that the private sector in emerging markets can actually help to do that,” Nicholson told Devex.
Nicholson said his time working with growing health systems in emerging countries has offered a more open and innovative landscape, less mired in bureaucracy, in which to experiment with how the private and public sectors can work together in health systems.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
