By CHIOMA OBINNA

The need for medical doctors in private practice in Lagos to tap into the Public Private Partnership, PPP,  in the state took centrestage during a two – day Multi-Purpose Public Private Partnership Capacity Building Workshop organised by the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, AGPMPN in Lagos.

Stakeholders who gathered at the event unanimously believed that the win – win situation provided by PPP would catapult private medical practice to the next level.

They also agreed that there is need for private medical practitioners to start concentrating on creating necessary synergy to develop private care through PPP which will in return elevate and move private practices to the acceptable level in Lagos and Nigeria at large.

Former Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan who declared the conference open, urged practitioners to rise from their old ways of practice that ‘healing can only do so much’ which he said has only hindered the necessary win – win situation that ought to have been created in the past.

According to him, PPP has gathered momentum in the health sector and Lagos state has created a PPP office which has also came up with a medical village that would allow practitioners to come together, work with foreign investors to establish there.

“There is need for private practitioners to maximise opportunity of the available facilities.  PPP will not only enhance practice but will improve quality of healthcare, reduce unacceptable health indices among others.”

Earlier, the Lagos State Chairman of AGPMPN, Dr Adeyeye Arigbabuwo, said PPP will ensure quality healthcare delivery and value for healthcare expenditure as the issue of availability, affordability; accessibility and acceptability form the fulcrum of good health system in the 21st century.

Arigbabuwo explained that the workshop was to reposition the private health sector in all ramifications in a bid to create a turn-around attitude in skills acquisition, managerial restructuring, service chatter, human resource reorientation, facility expansion, financial resource management, meeting regulatory requirement and evolution of a pragmatic and properly defined PPP models with State government and invariably by extension to the Federal level.

“The dividend of PPP can only be realised when there is mutual understanding on the side of the two parties – Public and Private,” he stated.

The workshop, first of its kind in Lagos, was also aimed at harmonizing the various professional groups and groupings in the healthcare industry in the state to objectively and professionally appraise the issues of common interest to the industry and operate within the ambient of the law to deliver healthcare service to the end users with quality touch,  in the true sense of universal coverage, using appropriate technology and human resources, going with best practices.

Lagos State Health Services Commission, Dr. Wunmi Salako, urged the doctors to help in making primary care facilities solid to be able to cater for the teeming population of Lagos.

Salako admitted that the state can no longer cope alone in the business of healthcare alone due to the growing population of the state adding that even the newly introduced Maternal and Child centres, MCCs, has been widely over-populated.