Establishment of a Medical Imaging & Diagnostics Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone Currently, the medical services available in Sierra Leone are of a very poor quality. The project partners would like to establish a modern imaging and diagnostic centre to improve the overall standard of the medical services in Sierra Leone. At the same time this project fills a gap in the local health care sector, with currently no adequate imaging and diagnostic services available, forcing patients to go abroad in order to get a medical diagnosis.The applicant in this project is Akai House Clinic Ltd, which is registered in Ghana. The local company, Medics Services Ltd, is registered in Sierra Leone. The project partners will establish a new joint venture for the execution of this project.The project will be located in Freetown, Sierra Leone.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)The joint venture will put high emphasise on quality control standards. The partners will adopt the principles of Clinical Governance (CG) – a certification which proves the clinic is in compliance with international healthcare standards. Furthermore, the joint venture will comply with the principals of Good Laboratory Practice ? an international certification with regards to laboratory performance and the quality of the diagnostics. The joint venture will also adhere to the criteria of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). CLSI is a global non-profit organisation that promotes the use of voluntary consensus standards and guidelines within the health care community.Furthermore, the joint venture will cooperate with NGOs on the referral of patients, whom, due to their situation cannot afford the clinic's services. The amount of the referred patients may not exceed 10% of the daily capacity. These patients will be treated for only 25% of the commercial costs.The joint venture will pay high salaries, the lowest income group will earn at least 1500% more than the official minimum wage. A medical waste management programme will be in place.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsThe clinic will employ a total of 38 people. Ten people in high-level jobs (1 doctor, namely the radiologist who will do the diagnosis and technicians operating the various medical instruments). 12 in medium-level jobs (nurses, administrative people, laboratory technicians and maintenance engineers) and 16 in basic-level jobs (cleaners, security staff).The staff will receive a decent salary, The lowest paid employee will receive at least 1500% of the official minimum wage in Sierra Leone. As a secondary benefit, the employees will receive health insurance and will be treated free of charge in the new clinic.•	Innovation / Transfer of knowledgeThere is no experience with most of the imaging and diagnostics equipment in the country, so the medical training activities bring new knowledge to the country. Also, working with hygiene and safety rules, a high service level and strict quality control, can be considered as innovative for the local health sector.•	Chain effectsThis project can introduce a higher quality of health care within Sierra Leone and can be considered as an important step in improving the health care facilities in Sierra Leone.This project can also contribute to a higher level of training of the local specialist and might prevent Sierra Leonean doctors to look for job opportunities abroad.Further, patients who had to travel abroad for a diagnosis can now be diagnosed locally. Following the diagnosis, the doctors can decide if further treatment (outside the clinic) is necessary.•	EnvironmentThe joint venture will set up a proper medical waste management system. Due to the fact that the medical clinic is not involved in surgery and other patient treatment and that all scans are digitalised, the amount of medical waste is relatively low. Therefore, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has not been included in this project proposal.•	Position of womenIt is expected that about 40% of the employees will be female. This project would like to establish an (outpatients) imaging and diagnostic centre where a variety of services, including CT scanning, X rays, Ultrasound, Mammography and Laboratory referrals, will be offered to the population of Sierra Leone.