Bianca Ibom
A health expert has recommended the establishment of a sustainable healthcare delivery service as solution to the various challenges plaguing the health sector.
According Dr. Ken Duru, healthcare should be viewed from a business perspective not just a social service, because adequate effort is needed to increase the life expectancy for Nigerians.
Duru said wealthy people travel out of the country to seek medical expertise, while the middle class struggle to access the few private healthcare centres in the country and the poor are left at the mercy of poorly managed
healthcare centres manned by poorly committed, ill-motivated healthcare workers or quacks without the necessary facilities to give the patients the type of comforts they should get.
Speaking at the unveiling of JJANED Specialist Hospital, Ajah, Lagos, Duru said: “Nigerians have depended on the healthcare professionals to proffer solutions to the various challenges plaguing the healthcare delivery sector but unfortunately, there are certain factors that have hindered the efforts of healthcare givers.
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“The sector needs to be re-engineered and our government needs to look closely at the healthcare delivery system, they should take a leap from developed world where healthcare services are provided with the necessary facilities.”
He said the organisation would emulate the western system of operation where they will be transparent and publish the number of patients they handle on a particular ailment.
Duru who plans to collaborate with experts to ensure Nigerians access adequate healthcare service, said the hospital was already equipped with state-of-the-art facilities that can perform major surgeries.
He said: “This is a practice you find in developed world. The world is advancing with technology. This is an era where you have digital means to accessing health, and I am going to en- sure that we publish the record of cases or ailment that the hospital handles.
“The hospital is developed with innovative financing solution for expanding access to quality care and medicine across the country. There is need for healthcare professionals to proffer solutions to the many challenges plaguing the sector. Apart from
Asians, Nigerian medical practitioners are the largest working abroad and they are very good. ”