Advances in health and technology is revolutionising health systems and changing the business of health care services. For technology adoption in Nigeria, experts opine that there must be a collective change in philosophy among individuals. The government should also amend its approach towards budget disbursement if it hopes to impact positively on Nigerians.
These views were expressed by experts in an interview with BusinessDay. Nigeria has a large and growing infrastructure gap in healthcare. However, these experts say getting medical equipment into the country is a major challenge for investors willing to positively impact the health sector and making this equipment available will save lives and reduce the foreign exchange losses to medical tourism.
“We do not have a shortage of budget in Nigeria’s healthcare spending; the problem is prioritising the budget to specific areas where the impact will be greatest” Ike Onuoha, certified nuclear medical technologist said.
“The problem in Nigeria’s healthcare is not allocations of funds, there are funds; neither is there a problem of available knowledge resources. But the solution needs to begin from within the individual – a change in mind set, to adopt a national philosophy for health; because your thoughts controls your feelings and your feelings controls your actions or put in another way your philosophy controls your ideology, your ideology controls your behaviour. We need to start from this first and we will see a massive change in the Nigerian healthcare system,” Onuoha added.
He stated that the Nigeria’s healthcare sector has a long way to go, lamenting the country has well trained healthcare professionals but with limited resources to practice what they know how to do best.
“Well, just like in most developed countries, the government can really subsidize healthcare almost to the point where citizens can obtain the needed healthcare,” said Onuoha
Speaking also on closing infrastructural gaps to improve healthcare service delivery Onuoha said that one major challenge that is hindering investors from doing business in Nigeria is the customs clearing process and immigration system for getting skilled workers.
According to him, these Medical devices are related article designed by the manufacturer for diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of disease burden.
“We experience delays in bringing in medical equipment because of bribery. This is a big challenge he lamented.
He added that the mindset which controls the government has to be changed. The people in the customs are making life miserable. Those who occupy key positions to change policy and allows this equipment come in should note that the current climate is hindering the opportunities of bringing medical equipment’s into the country.
Similarly, Hammed Ninalowo a Vascular and Interventional Radiologist said that adoption of new technologies in Nigeria is challenging. “One of the biggest obstacles is the supply chain that brings value to the use of new medical advances; I bring in supplies and bags when I am travelling which is not really ideal in a sustainable environment” he says.
“I have talked to a lot of manufacturers in America and Europe to set up sales points in Nigeria, but they basically say we cannot come to Nigeria because your country is too corrupt and the process of registering products is opaque full of bottlenecks. It is almost impossible to do business in Nigeria,” Ninalowo said.
Ninalowo expressed that until when Nigeria starts looking at government regulations and policies that favours growth and development, especially for field of medicine where selected products are unique and not locally available for now.
“Let the Government put regulations in place to give us dedicated pathways to bring these products, get these manufacturers, and make the regulations more favourable for these manufactures to come into the country for the benefit of our own people. The incompetence of customs clearing systems and regulatory policies are contributory to medical deaths in Nigeria. We must identify these people who are unwilling to make things easier for us,” he urged.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
