FG strengthening healthcare system to curb medical tourism – Minister

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, has said the Federal Government is strengthening tertiary healthcare system to address medical tourism.

Salako spoke on Tuesday during his first official visit and inauguration of projects at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja.

He said President Bola Tinubu’s agenda prioritised healthcare as a fundamental right for all Nigerians.

He also commended the hospital for playing a crucial role in the healthcare system, contributing to the success of the government’s significant investments in the sector.

He said, “With this new additions, the tertiary healthcare system in our country is being strengthened and the need to travel outside the country for some critical care service like kidney transplantation is being addressed.

“Today, I will be inaugurating a ward extension building and a new clinical services complex. The ward extension building as I have been informed features a well-equipped 64-bedded facility that includes private rooms, semi-private rooms, and open wards and designed to help alleviate the challenge of inadequate bed space in the hospital.

“A new three-story ultramodern clinical services building with a dedicated renal unit furnished with 18 hemodialysis beds and equiped to commence renal transplantation programme at this centre in a couple of weeks has also been constructed. These infrastructure are without doubt critical additions to the vision of Federal Medical Centre, Jabi to be a world class hospital. Let me therefore congratulate the management and staff of this hospital for this important milestone.”

He, however, urged the hospital’s management and staff to prioritise patients by providing top-quality service.

“As you know, buildings and equipments alone cannot deliver quality healthcare without a responsible, responsive and well-trained staff. Before patients experience your infrastructure, they will first experience your humaness right from the gate and their experience will be impacted more by the level of empathy and civility they receive. I urge you to always pay attention to these attributes, even as you maintain your professionalism and clinical competence.

“For us at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, our priority is on the outcomes rather than the outputs, the end results of work, rather than the work itself. We will therefore be paying more attention to the quality of care and patients experience when they visit your facilities, rather the sophistication of your equipments and infrastructure.

“With the rejuvenation of the National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee, we will be paying more attention on the standard of tertiary facilities (private and public) in the country. Also, the ongoing initiative to deepen digitalisation of processes in our tertiary healthcare institutions through the Nigeria Digital in-Health will be used to leverage more on digital technology for better feedback from patients and put more emphasis on quality of care in our facilities,” he emphasised.

The minister also assured that the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare would continue to provide support through appropriate policies and resource mobilisation to the hospital.

“As part of the Federal Government efforts to make dialysis care more affordable, the government last year commenced an initiative to bring down the cost of dialysis by about 80 per cent in 10 selected Federal tertiary health institutions across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

“Going Forward, FMC, Jabi is now a good candidate to join the implementation of this initiative. Though this a temporary measure, it is expected that with the unlocking the value chain of the healthcare sector agenda of Mr. President,  the removal of tarrifs on pharmaceuticals and other critical inputs in the sector and the expansion of the National Health Insurance coverage, the affordability challenge around healthcare services will be more sustainably addressed,” he added.

On his part, the Chief Medical Director of FMC Abuja, Prof Saad Ahmed, stressed that the vision of the hospital was to be a world-class healthcare provider focused on quality care, clinical excellence, patient satisfaction, and innovation.

Ahmed highlighted that the hospital offers advanced services such as heart surgeries, spinal and neurosurgical operations, IVF, and dialysis, basic healthcare, among others.

He said new projects, including the clinical services building and ward extension, aim to improve healthcare delivery with advanced facilities.

“Meanwhile, the ward extension will provide additional bed spaces for patients, thereby reducing the challenges associated with limited admission capacity.

“In 2020, in this same facility, our outpatient population monthly used to be just 5,000 to 6,000. At present, we are battling with 25,000 to 26,000. We are proud also to announce the addition, among other equipment that we procured this year, and in last year, a brand new neurosurgical operating microscope, which will greatly benefit many of our patients requiring brain surgery. Several other important projects are currently underway,” he stated.

He, however, said despite progress made over the past few years, the hospital faces challenges in expanding its services.

“Our oxygen plant is no longer sufficient to meet the demands of our increased clientele. We kindly request your assistance in securing an all-enveloped adjacent land to this hospital, which I will show the Honorable Minister later.

“We are asking anyone who has any plans to increase our budget for this hospital and other interventions to address the housing needs in order to continue giving quality services to Nigerians,” he said.

Meanwhile, the minister pledged to work towards addressing the demands of the hospital.