GlaxoSmithKline puts £3m into Rwandan rural clinics Under the partnership with Glaxo, Africa's Ecobank and Healthstore Holdings, Rwanda aims to establish 240 "health posts" over the next three years. These clinics will provide high quality essential medicines and basic health care to about two million people a year in rural Rwanda. Following a pilot scheme in Kenya, the clinics will be run by nurses under a franchise model. Duncan Learmouth, who heads Glaxo's LDC unit, said that nurses would pay a licence fee to join the franchise, entitling them to set up their own clinic and take out a microfinance loan to equip it. [It] enables them to create a small business around the clinic. Once they reach 20 to 25 patients a day, it enables them to break even and start making a profit," he said. "One of the issues in Africa, it's not just about availability of medicines but about the quality of interaction," he added. This system is also a positive for that. The nurse wants patients to come back and have a good patient experience. Glaxo has already committed £900,000 to get some clinics up and running and is providing a further £1.8m as an interest-free loan, from which it will not profit, and there is no expectation that the clinics have to stock the company's products.