Johannesburg — GENERAL Electric (GE) Healthcare was set to double its investments in SA through a "three-year plan", president Richard di Benedetto said this week, as it looks to step up talks with the government on public-private partnerships.

Previously innovations in healthcare were "developed in Germany or the US and then trickled down to emerging markets", but GE Healthcare now sees emerging markets like SA as major growth opportunities.

"The next 20 years will be Africa's time, especially in healthcare," Di Benedetto said in Johannesburg. "We have 60 people fully dedicated to healthcare in this country - it's not much, but it's a starting point. We want to grow into a better local company, and now is the right time to do it."

The company, a subsidiary of US conglomerate GE, also has a presence in Egypt and Nigeria, and will open a direct operation in Morocco this year.

SA country manager Neil Boyce said GE Healthcare was in talks with provincial governments on possible public-private partnerships, which mostly concerned "big hospitals".

"One that was mentioned in the budget recently was Bara (Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital) - that's going to be one of the biggest public-private partnerships in the country, and we're looking into that."

Boyce pointed to GE Healthcare's international public-private partnership division, whose staff had "specific expertise, having done public-private partnerships all over the world", and said "we can use these guys to help us".

GE Healthcare would pursue the potential deals at meetings this month with the provincial governments of Gauteng and the Western Cape.

The company was set to launch training programmes for medical professionals in the country, and expected to enrol at least 500 students a year.

"It will be a substantial investment for us," said Boyce. "We need people to be using our equipment for them to understand (its) benefits."

GE Healthcare had suffered from the emigration of medical staff, however. "Last year we lost more than 500 specialists in SA. We need to reinvest in these guys and look after them."

An initiative launched last year will see it invest 15bn over six years in research and development, with a focus on improving access to healthcare.

Boyce pointed to the portable Vscan imaging device, launched this week, as an example of technology improving medical care in remote areas. The small device enables doctors to perform scans at the point of care. Its cost of about R65000 would put it within the budget of most general practitioners, the company said.