Few people know about Heineken’s 70 clinics in low- and middle-income countries. At the clinics, free healthcare is provided for employees as well as their spouses and children.

In 2001, PharmAccess founder Joep Lange convinced Heineken to be the first to commit to workplace treatment for people with HIV/Aids in Africa. Now, 18 years later, Heineken is the first multinational to adopt international healthcare quality standards, developed by PharmAccess’ SafeCare.

SafeCare is committed to reduce the many amenable deaths each year, that are a result of inadequate, low quality healthcare. It comprises ISQua accredited standards and a step-wise improvement program for health facilities in low- and middle-income countries. To date, the standards are adopted at almost 3000 clinics in Africa. SafeCare has been proven a success: 82% of the beneficiary facilities show improvement in their quality.

In the brewery world, Heineken is known for setting high standards for beer, and its measurable objectives are adopted in the entire Company. By committing itself to SafeCare standards, the multinational provides transparency and enables quality improvement at their health facilities – hoping for other hospitals we use to follow.

Our cooperation with Heineken is an important next step for both of our companies – not only in terms of uptake of Quality Standards but as an example function of an impactful public private partnership.

For SafeCare, the partnership with Heineken means a first step outside the African continent, expanding to both Asia and Latin America.  Aafke de Graaff, head of SafeCare: ‘’Our cooperation with Heineken is an important next step for both of our companies – not only in terms of uptake of Quality Standards but as an example function of an impactful public private partnership.’