Nigeria’s healthcare system is renowned for heart-wrenching indices. These include poor health expenditure per capita, at only $217, as well as 35 percent chances of people dying between the age of 15 and 60, according to World Health Organisation statistics.
But like little drops of sanity amid a pool of inadequacies, some health institutions in the country, both private and public, have embarked on substantial human and resource development strategies to create import substitution for outbound health tourism.
In what can be regarded as an exercise in doing things differently to achieve different results, local hospitals of varying categories and specialties are actively overhauling their facilities, strengthening their expertise and pushing healthcare delivery to a point that can repose confidence in high-income class and expatriates, while rekindling hope in the majority of Nigerians with no option of alternative elsewhere.
Predominantly, health issues relating to cancer (oncology), kidney (nephrology), heart and blood vessels, stomach and intestines (gastroenterology), as well as respiratory (pulmonology) and rheumatic issues top the list of reasons fuelling health tourism out of Nigeria.
Read More: Nigerian hospitals scale up infrastructure, expertise to dwarf health tourism
India, the United Kingdom and the United States, for instance, continue to be beneficiaries of the loophole in local healthcare system. 47 percent of Nigerians who visited India in the year 2012 alone did so for medical treatments with an estimated cost of N41.6 billion (US$260 million), available data show.
But the narrative has gradually headed for a change in the little and big wins of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), the Federal Medical Centre Ebute-Metta, Reddington Hospital, Lagoon Hospital, St. Nicholas and Healing Stripes hospitals, among others that are raising the bar.
LUTH is one of the 22 Federal Teaching Hospitals that the Federal Ministry of Health supervises alongside 20 Federal Medical Centres, 17 specialty hospitals, 14 professional regulatory bodies and 19 training institutions spread across the country.
With the consciousness of reducing capital flight gulped by medical tourism, the LUTH-NSIA ultra-modern cancer centre was inaugurated last February by President Muhammadu Buhari and has begun to render services.
The facility which was an existing cancer centre co-located in LUTH was revamped and equipped to provide advanced radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment services by an $11 million investment under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement between the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and LUTH.
Nigerians can now access internal and external radiotherapy services, which were previously hard to come by in the country. To serve 3,000 patients annually without unnecessarily protracting waiting times for treatment, over 80 trained healthcare professionals are on ground, LUTH says.
The NSIA currently owns the centre but full ownership is expected to revert to LUTH after 10 years of operations. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, five additional centres are currently being upgraded across the country to meet the demand of treating the deadly disease.
Breaking barriers to quality healthcare on the private sector front is the Reddington Hospital sitting on Victoria Island, Lagos. With millions of dollars invested in leading healthcare technology, Reddington’s vision is to bury the insecurity many feel about healthcare in Nigeria.
The latest on the list of its major investments is the acquisition of a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine last year, to ensure the process of having an MRI get far less concerning for patients. Reddington had to pull down one of the walls within its head office to install this giant imaging device.
MRI uses a large magnet and radio waves to view organs and structures of the body, diagnosing variety of conditions, from torn muscles to cancers and examining the brain and spinal cord.
Recently, a senior member of a foreign consulate was in a dilemma of either travelling long hours back to the United States for a major operation or simply taking the risk and leap of faith to get it done in Nigeria. He chose the latter with the reassurance that the equipment, facilities, expertise and nursing support needed were available without flying out.
While the hospital boasts of a culture of having many expert hands on deck to deal with heart-related problems, the opening of Davidson Critical and Surgical Centre represents another of its major investment in terms of technology, delivering the same quality of service that can be accessed out of Nigeria.
Davidson Specialist Surgery and Critical Care Centre is a facility that offers major to complex specialised surgery supported with high-level intensive care. It is a fully integrated specialist unit equipped with technology and managed by a team of experienced surgeons.
“The biggest impact is to stop medical tourism outside Nigeria. If people have confidence that they can get the quality of care and expertise within Nigeria, then why will they fly six and a half hours either to India, the UK of the US, and spend more money and be away from their families when in fact they can get it done here?” Andy Cunliffe, general manager and business development director, Reddington Hospital, told BusinessDay in an exclusive interview.
As part of efforts to strengthen its arsenal of experts, Reddington brought in Dr S. M. Aung, an associate professor of Cardiology, a Fellow of American College of Cardiology and consultant interventional cardiologist.
Cardiology deals with the disorders of the heart as well as some parts of the circulatory system. It includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and valvular heart disease.
In 2010, the hospital recorded a medical feat by performing a device closure of a hole in the heart without surgery, the first in Nigeria. The diagnosis, Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA), was discovered on a three-year-old child and the procedure was carried out by insertion of a small device through a vein in the groin.
The Lagoon Hospital, like Reddington, has also built capacity to handle multi-specialties including cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, general surgery, internal medicine, neonatal care, nephrology and neurosurgery, among others.
At Oba Oniru Road in Lekki, Lagos, the Healing Stripes Hospital, a corporate social responsibility arm of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David Parish, gives quality healthcare services at subsidised rates. The hospital has 10 dialysis machines. From nephrology to cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, urology, general surgery and diagnostic services, it has attended to over 15,000 patients, 50 percent via the welfare programme. From inception in 2010 to date, over 17,542 people in Lagos State have received free cancer screening and therapy.
Again within the government arena, the Federal Medical Centre, Ebutte-Metta, Lagos has particularly witnessed major overhauling in the last one year, giving the impression of a newly-built health facility upon visit. It has invested afresh in critical areas like dialysis centre, cancer screening machine, digital x-ray equipment and a modern labour theatre for maternal delivery. The hospital also has about 210 functional beds, a rejuvenated oxygen plant, a newly-built accident and emergency ward and a revamped general outpatient department. The paediatric department is not left out as it is equipped with about eight functional incubators and a consulting room decorated with famous cartoon characters to distract children from drugs and injections.
On the whole, government efforts at improving health outcomes have yielded fruits in the current prevalence of HIV/AIDS dropping from 3 percent in 2015 to 1.4 percent in 2019, according to the latest report of the Federal Ministry of Health signed by Isaac Adewole, immediate past minister of health, a professor. The prevalence of malaria has reduced to 27 percent in 2018 from 42 percent in 2016 and the number of children receiving immunisation has increased to 57 percent in 2018 from 48 percent in 2015.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) has committed to supporting the government vaccine financing initiative to the tune of $1.03 billion. $55.1 billion has been received to fund an explicit package of services through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.
If increased public financing for health to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, high impact programmes and accountability are adopted, experts envisage Nigeria’s healthcare could sing an entirely positive song on its path to achieving Universal Health Coverage.
TEMITAYO AYETOTO
