Flying Doctors Nigeria (FDN) has presented a sectoral report on effective healthcare management in the oil and gas industry at the opening ceremony of the ongoing 40th Annual International Conference and Exhibitions of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).
The Conference and Exhibitions, which hosts over 50,000 participants and visitors annually also had in attendance chief executives of multinational and indigenous oil and gas companies, bankers, ministerial representatives as well as petroleum geophysicists across Nigeria and Africa.
The report titled ‘The Latest Healthcare Innovations in Software, Telemedicine and Emergency Care to Keep Oil and Gas Workers Safe in Their Workplace’ presented data to demonstrate the necessity of quality medical services to industry workers. With a special focus on the African energy sector due to the continent`s demographic dividend and subsequent increase in energy consumption, the report also features 10 medical innovations to improve workers health and safety.
To back its arguments, FDN provides a comprehensive overview of industry-related data including economic contribution of the sector to the African economies and statistics of health issues and accidents amongst oil & gas workers.
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Commenting on the report, Jibayo Oyedele, Medical Director, Flying Doctors Nigeria, said: “The oil and gas industry is the brick and mortar of the African continent with thousands of workers. Energy demand is projected to rise almost 30 percent by 2040 across the continent.
Significant as such, the industry should create conducive conditions for its personnel, especially those in the field, to freely access quality emergency care and medical services. At the bottom line, healthy protected workers of individual companies will improve the resilience of national economics.”
Oyedele further described the hindrances of achieving sustainable healthcare in the African oil & gas sector, highlighting the lack of innovative healthtech and pharmtech solutions as hindrances while encouraging more strategic partnerships to address the challenges.
Prepared for practical use of oil & gas executives in the quest to ease access to modern healthcare innovations for their employees, ‘The Latest Healthcare Innovations in Medical Care for the Oil & Gas Industry’ report canvases for the adoption of such innovative approaches including the embrace of electronic medical records, telemedicine, remote treatment, wearables, mental health technology, fitness tech, medical evacuation cover, remote smart clinics, international medical evacuation, advanced care ambulances and onsite medical equipment.
The report has been vetted by top executives of leading oil, gas and energy companies in Nigeria responsible for healthcare of their workers including Mohammed Zango, head of medical services, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Babatunde Odemuyiwa, QHSE manager (Nigeria and Ghana), Siemens Energy Limited; Sukalyan Basu, head of medical services, Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals; Uche Okorocha, former health advisor, Sub-Saharan Africa, Schlumberger; and Okuns Ohiosimuan, corporate medical services Manager/CMO, Nigeria LNG.
These experts expressed their interest in innovative technologies and reiterated their readiness to adopt medical tech novelties in their corporate practices. Some executives whose companies have already incorporated telemedicine and other digital solutions to treat workers in-house confirmed the tangible value of technologies to the bottom line.
Flying Doctors Nigeria is a tech-enabled global marketplace for urgent and emergency medical care. The organisation specifically services the oil & gas, mining and international insurance industries, providing medical transportation – air and ground ambulance – services; personnel, virtual care and clinic management services; and medical equipment and consumables sales/financing through healthcare software solutions.
