When Kamel Ghribi, chairman of GKSD and Vice President of the San Donato group, presented the “Iraq project” to his Italian interlocutors, many greeted him with skepticism. The first visits of Milanese doctors to Iraq to explore the locations of the Group’s future investment were accompanied by doubts and concerns.
Today, the Italian and Iraqi flags fly on the sign of the Teaching Hospital of Al Najaf, with the words “Policlinico San Donato” and Gruppo San Donato. The news reports the debut in Iraq of the first Italian private healthcare group to manage, in a public-private partnership with the local government, the hospital of Al Najaf, a high-level university polyclinic in a city important to the Shiite community because it hosts the tomb of Ali, who was the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad.
Najaf, with 1.2 million inhabitants and located 160 kilometers from Baghdad, has become the place where the San Donato Group and GKSD experiment with sharing Italian know-how, paving the way for other investors from our country.
The San Donato Group will co-manage 492 beds and 3,000 employees, with the support of a team of 50 professionals including technicians, administrators and doctors. The initiative has already attracted many Iraqi doctors and specialists who had fled during the war and have now returned to contribute to the country’s recovery.
The strategy of the Iraqi Prime Minister Al Sudani has found in the intuition of Kamel Ghribi a partner ready to push the San Donato Group towards an ambitious internationalization program. The contract is worth 81 million euros per year for the San Donato Group.
Ghribi said that this is just the beginning, and many expect further developments soon.
