By SOLA OGUNDIPE

TOWARDS enabling the average Nigerian patient access to the most advanced and effective healthcare services in the world, Apollo Hyderabad Group, the largest group of hospitals in Asia, recently teamed up with the Nigerian medical industry, to  establish the  Apollo Global Doctors Network- West Africa.

“We have good doctors in Nigeria, what is lacking here is infrastructure. With infrastructure and constant repetition of procedures, doctors here can become super specialists, said Dr. Ufuoma Okotete, Medical Director/CEO, Diamond Helix Medical Assistance, Lagos, one of the partners initiating the Network.

“The Global Doctors Network is for second opinion. What we are creating is a platform for regular international exchanges with hospitals in India, the US and Germany.”

Okotete, an expert in medical tourism, explained that one of the  requirements of Nigerian patients is superspeciality care. “This is a platform for expanding networking opportunities for  local doctors to engage in scientific discussion with foreign doctors. Majority of the doctors are Indians practicing at Apollo Hospitals, but the initiative  is to get a platform where we can upgrade doctors to sort out simple procedures and also provide opportunities to and create platforms of exchanges where they could travel out for trainings to improve the health sector,” she explained.

“Through the platform, doctors would be having regular exchanges for trainings and updates. For instance, If you see a patient and you are not very sure about the diagnosis, you just send the report, and a doctor in that particular speciality would take a look at the case, make recommendations and respond. It is like a friendly cycle of exchange from which the patient is the overall beneficiary.

The  CEO, Apollo Hyderabad Group, Central Region, Dr K. Hari Prasad, who led the  Indian medical team to the official launch of the Network, said  Apollo had established relationships with the people of Nigeria,and they were of the belief the country would benefit from the healthcare model established by India.

“While we continue to keep the patients who come to India, take care of them, we are also looking into how we can come here and support the Nigerian government, and private institutions and the people of Nigeria in developing their own health care infrastructure, and the skills of their medical personnel so that we would assist Nigeria to have a trained system of health care that will provide everything  the people of Nigeria and West Africa require.”

Prasad explained that the cost efficiency and quality of healthcare services available in Indian hospitals, come from the way the hospitals are planned, built and run. “One important factor in Indian health care is that  90-95 percent of the budget is actually spent on clinical care of the patient, while in some other developed countries of the world like the US,  hardly does 20-30 percent of the amount spent on health, actually reaches the patient because of administrative and banking processes.

“First thing Nigeria should learn is that there is a different model of health care apart from the British and American model. This third model is good for developing countries like Nigeria where resources are minimal and the challenge will be to maximize the outcome of resources used.”

Prasad argued that Nigerian government should create platforms to enable doctors operating  outside the country exhibit their skill here.

“If Nigeria created the platform, you will be certain that Nigeria doctors from all over the world will come back to Nigeria. We have been seeing this happening in India. Finally, it is beneficial for Nigerians to have a Public Private Partnership, PPP, to  inject a catalytic effect in development of health care in Nigeria.”