Medical Experts Canvass for Healthcare Revolution
Medical experts have urged the public and private sector institutions to come together to radicalise the health sector in Nigeria and ensure it is fit.
This was the position of speakers at the Doctors’ Forum, organised by The Bridge Clinic and Pathcare Laboratories in Lagos recently.
The programme which focused on ‘Addressing the Fallout of Medical Tourism in Nigeria’ had an experienced panel anchored by the Founder and Medical Director, First Cardiology Consultants, Dr Yemi Johnson and the Clinical Director, St. Nicholas Hospital, Dr Ebun Bamgboye.
Bamgboye, speaking on ‘Nephrology and the Success Recorded in Renal Transplant in Nigeria,’ revealed that Nigerians spend at least $1 billion yearly on medical treatment in various countries of the world.
He said: “India is attractive because of its experience in high technology especially in diagnostics and also for the relatively lower cost of treating patients. Nigerians visits India for cancer, spinal cord, plastic and neuro-surgery as well as fertility and transplant tourism.”
He identified the problem associated with renal transplant in Africa as manpower, facilities, literacy level, poverty, and lack of access to transplantation centres, lack of dialysis facilities and other infrastructure, quality and safety issues.
According to Johnson, Nigeria needs to upgrade its health infrastructure as a nation and invests in health education and training for its medical professionals. “Patients who go abroad for cardiovascular related diseases such as routine health check, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, arrhythmias, angina, coronary artery disease, vascular heart disease and so on; do so because of the poor infrastructure and non-availability of high-tech equipment, shortage of manpower and medical supplies.”
Moreover, he also noted that registration of products was cumbersome and expensive and government policies were confusing and oftentimes counter-productive. “Medical tourism started with patients from the developed world seeking high quality less expensive medical care in less developed countries.”
In his own intervention, Ajayi declared that for Nigeria’s healthcare to be fit for purpose, more needs to be done in the areas of implementing quality management systems, patients’ satisfaction surveys, effective consequence management and patient reported objective measures.
He said that Nigeria would only thrive when the right personnel were put in place to run the healthcare system and that a lot needed to be done to improve the health structures and institutions, especially in the area of standards and quality.
During the interactive session, many speakers emphasised the need for adequate budgetary provision for healthcare. They also spoke about increasing the availability of funds with low interest rates for private practitioners to enable them easily source for latest medical equipment for diagnosis and treatment.