Specialist care provider, Cornerstone Healthcare, will be one of the keynote speakers at a national conference in Iceland promoting the case for increase private investment in the sector.

Iceland’s health care minister, Willum Thor Thorsson, will be among the delegates at the ‘Older and Better’ conference at the Harpa Conference Centre in Reykjavik on the 14 September, which will examine how private enterprise could best be involved in elderly residential care to the benefit of residents and their families.

“Our residents benefit enormously from the financial input of our private investors and we want to share what that could look like for Icelandic care providers,” said Cornerstone’s chief executive, Johann van Zyl.

Van Zyl, and Cornerstone’s chief operating officer, Dara Ni Ghadhra, will be joined by Care England’s Professor Martin Green who will give an overview of how privately funded services currently function in the UK, how the sector is regulated, the benefits of having specialist care homes and the role Care England plays in its interaction with the government and care providers. 

Currently, residential nursing care in Iceland is provided mostly by non-profit organisations but more investment and diversified services are needed.

Specialist care facilities that meet the specific needs of the most vulnerable residents are very limited in number and nursing homes are unable to provide such tailored care, putting further strain on already struggling services.

Cornerstone Healthcare is primarily funded by a consortium led by Icelandic bank, Kvika Securities, which is partnering with Soltun Healthcare Services Ltd, a leading Icelandic privately run healthcare company, in organising the event.