The Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award (NHEA) has awarded the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, for his outstanding leadership in handling the COVID-19 crisis in Lagos State.
Abayomi, who received the award for “health commissioner of the year,” dedicated the award to all the healthcare practitioners who helped the state in combating the pandemic.
Other awardees include the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Ebute-Metta, for ‘SafeCare Public Facility of the Year’; and Paelon Memorial Hospital for the “SafeCare Private Facility of the Year” among other healthcare organizations who received awards of recognition for quality healthcare delivery.
Now referred to as “the Oscars” of the Nigerian health sector, the NHEA awards is designed to celebrate distinguished personalities and organizations who have contributed greatly to the growth of the Nigerian health sector. Since its inception in 2014, it has become a high-profile event in the healthcare industry, gaining wide acceptance from stakeholders in the healthcare community.
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“Our SafeCare standards are internationally recognized and create a transparent improvement path for health facilities seeking excellence in healthcare service delivery. SafeCare standards are accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation,” said Njide Ndili, country director, PharmAccess Foundation, while awarding the SafeCare category.
She added that all award nominees were selected for their passionate commitment to quality improvement and service delivery.
Also speaking, the managing director of Paelon Memorial Hospital, Ngozi Onyia said her decision to sign up for SafeCare was one of the best business decisions she made, as it put them on a growth and constant improvement trajectory that has been their differentiating factor.
“We strive to do it right the first time, all the time,” she said.
On his part, while receiving the award, the chief medical director for the FMC Ebute Metta, Adedamola Dada remarked said the award would spur them to greater heights. He noted that the SafeCare Public Facility of the Year Award was very credible because SafeCare is a quality organization that has worked and existed in Africa for over a decade.
While thanking all Nigerians and the organizers of the 2021 Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award to celebrate healthcare heroes, he dedicated the award to their patients, staff, board of management and to their supervising minister, senator Adeleke Mamora.
The chairman, advisory board, NHEA 2021, Anthony Omolola said he was very proud of how Lagos State Government and the Ministry of Health responded to the outbreak of COVID-19, stating that NHEA is a special award because they work diligently to select those who impacted the health care space in Nigeria.
According to him, the aim is to become the best in Africa and working toward all over the world. He also said over 20,000 nominations were received and the NHEA jury shortlisted over 100 nominees made up of organizations and individuals both from the public and private sectors for voting.
“The NHEA jury made a shortlist based on published criteria for each set of awards for online voting on the NHEA voting portal. We also evaluated claims of nominees simultaneously across the country. In a bid to continuously improve our current process to meet international best practice, there was tremendous use of technology with improved security features,” he said.
PharmAccess Foundation has been a proud sponsor for the NHEA SafeCare award for the last 6 years in its effort to promote quality improvement and excellence in healthcare service delivery in Nigeria.
