Hallmark Health Service Limited has collaborated with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) to boost voluntary donations through members of its staff in an effort to drive the availability of blood in the health system.
The donation is the second held yearly to mark World Blood Donation Day 2022. Both members of staff of the health maintenance organisation and other member companies including Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Grand Treasurers Limited, and CHI Micro Insurance Limited marched down to LUTH to support the course.
More than 2.5 million pints of blood are unavailable when required for medical intervention in Nigeria, leaving pregnant women the hardest hit in a life-threatening cycle of blood shortage that the country has grappled with for many years, experts say.
Nigeria needs to collect about four million pints of blood yearly to meet the transfusion requirement of the country’s population estimated at 206 million.
Oladotun Adeogun, the managing director of Hallmark HMO in a statement said the blood donation drive has become an annual event of the company that will be sustained as part of the organisation’s corporate social responsibility, to help beef up the blood blank of the leading tertiary healthcare provider in Nigeria, easing patients’ access to the crucial lifeline when in need.
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She pledged that the company will continue to play a pivotal role in strengthening the healthcare systems through several means such as the stakeholders’ engagement held recently in Lagos.
At the engagement, Olorunnnimbe Mamora, the minister of state for Health who was represented by Adedamola Dada, the chief medical officer, Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Meta called for increased public and private sector partnerships to achieve Nigeria’s goal to leverage universal health coverage.
It was noted that the partnership between the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and health maintenance organisations (HMOs) needs to be strengthened with the inclusion of community-based health intervention schemes in order to improve the well-being of the majority of the population.
Eddie Efekoha, group managing director and chief executive officer of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc also assured of continued support for the exercise in view of the significance of the availability of blood at critical moments to help save lives.
Hallmark Health Services Limited, a subsidiary of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc provides an array of affordable health plans for individuals and corporate organisations.
The company has continued to leverage the use of technology to deliver top-notch health maintenance services to its growing clientele nationwide.
Leveraging partnerships with initiatives such as Market Doctors, it is widening access for the less privileged through community-based health insurance schemes.
It has been designed to address specific needs such as care for a particular pre-existing condition, and access to maternity or children care.
