AS part of efforts to tackle capacity gaps in the health sector and develop the next generation of healthcare leaders who will excel in governance, management and quality healthcare service provision, a new private sector initiative, Healthcare Leadership Academy (HLA), has emerged. An intervention of the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN), Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF), alongside Cambridge University, Duke University, Lagos Business School, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, and advisory, research and capacity development for the health sector (EpiAFRIC), HLA seeks to plug leadership gaps in the health sector and reduce the level of health tourism from Nigeria to other parts of the world.

Co-chair, PSHAN, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, at the launch of the initiative told selected participants: “There is leadership and management deficit at different levels of the health care system that impede the delivery of expected quality care. This developmental gap is made evident by the low productivity and skill set of healthcare workers and the poor financial health of the institutions they manage.” The PSHAN, in a statement, noted that PSHAN and HSDF brokered and convened partners and institutions to develop the HLA to incorporate leadership, quality improvement and private sector business management approaches in the provision of quality care and governance of institutions.

The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Linus Awute had made unsuccessful underground plans to leave the ministry fearing that Ebola Virus Disease which Nigeria contained its spread in October 2014 would resurface. It would be recalled that Ebola was introduced into Nigeria on 20 July 2014 when an infected Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer arrived by aeroplane into Lagos. The man, who died in hospital 5 days later, set off a chain of transmission that infected a total of 19 people, of whom 7 died.

According to World Health Organistion (WHO) recommendations, the end of an Ebola virus disease outbreak in a country can be declared once 42 days have passed and no new cases have been detected. The 42 days represents twice the maximum incubation period for Ebola (21 days). This 42-day period starts from the last day that any person in the country had contact with a confirmed or probable Ebola case. And on October 20 2014, Nigeria reached that 42-day mark and is now considered free of Ebola transmission.

CureChat is a new app aimed at Reducing Loss of Lives caused by Ignorance through Effective Public Health Awareness Providing for the long needed technological solution to bridge the gap between doctors and patients in Nigeria, the new app CureChat was launched in September 2015. Malnutrition, Malaria, Typhoid  among other illnesses  have been burning problems in Nigeria and the bordering countries in Africa for many decades without complete eradication. These public health issues have been a major burden on the country’s economy affecting the day-to-day life of every citizen.

CureChat Ltd is up for the Challenge Lack of health awareness has been a major cause of the number of deaths reported in Nigeria yearly. There is a clear need to identify an approach to creating public health awareness in a rather effective manner in order to reduce the number of loss of lives caused by ignorance in Nigeria and Africa. CureChat Ltd pitches their new startup under the limelight that people nowadays have easier access to the internet and new technology than in the past, which can be helpful in creating more awareness on public health.

In its final push to eradicate polio in the country, the ‎federal government says it’s currently carrying out routine immunisation exercise in 96 internally displaced camps (IDPs) across the country. This was disclosed yesterday in Abuja by the executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Ado Mohammed ,to Flagg off the October 2015 Polio Immunisation Plus Days. He said that in the Federal Capital Territory, the Feeral Government through the agency has provided four rounds of the immunisation campaign so that every eligible child would be reached during the programme.

He also disclosed that the next polio immunisation campaign in 11 polio vulnerable states, Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara commences tommorrow. According to Ado, a total of 32 million children are being targeted during the campaign across the vulnerable states. He also solicited for the continued support of all Nigerians, especially the press to be advocates of continous vaccination of children in the country until the World Health Organisation (WHO) certifies Nigeria a polio-free country in 2017.

The Health Ministry is an inter-professional sector, previous health ministers seem to forget this simple fact, they focus all their energy trying to serve the interest of the NMA at the expense of other professional interest in the health sector. Nigeria need a change from the past, we need a minister who will separate his/her personal professional interest and commitments from affecting his duties to Nigerian people, and make qualityhealth care delivery utmost priority instead of welfare and interest of Doctors. Most ministers in recent past have failed the sector and country due to their inability to remove their primary professional constituency interest from interfering with their roles as ministers of health, they left other professional group to languish in neglect resulting in many unnecessary industrial unrest.

They ended up becoming ministers of doctors, rather than ministers of health, a ministerial candidate was asked during the ongoing senate screening what he will do to prevent industrial unrest in the health sector and he started talking about engaging resident doctors because he is a medical doctor, how about the nurses, pharmacist, medical scientists, physiotherapist …An example is the recent past Minister of Health, Prof. Oyebuchi Chukwu, who refused to obey all court rulingsfavouring other health professionals, but will quickly implement those favouring his immediate constituency the NMA and MDCN.

The Enugu State Government said it would upgrade the School of Health Technology and all district hospitals in the state for improved provision of healthcare. The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Sam Ngwu, made the disclosure on Tuesday when he visited the school, located at Oji-River, as well as Oji-River district hospitals. He said that the upgrade had been long-overdue if sustainable development goal on health would be achieved. Ngwu said that the Enugu governor’s vision for all the health facilities in the state was to see that citizens were adequately cared for through the provision of efficient and affordable healthcare services. The commissioner said “Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has assured that he will enhance the standard of all hospitals and facilities in the School of Health Technology to meet 21st century standard.

“There is an urgent need for the provision and proper maintenance of new technological equipment and employment of qualified health personnel that will use the equipment properly to avoid retrogression in life saving activities in the state hospitals.’’ He urged doctors and other health workers to avoid conservative healthcare delivery and work with passion to achieve the purpose for which the health facilities were provided for. He promised to provide power generating set to the Oji River hospital to facilitate their work. Responding, the Chairman of Oji River Local Government Area, Mr Jideofor Onyemaechi, promised to offset the hospital bills of indigent patients in the district hospital in his area.

It has been one year since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Nigeria free of Ebola Virus Disease but the federal government has not forgotten the efforts of Dr Stella Adadevoh of First Consultant Hospital in Lagos and other partners who made the success story possible. Adadevoh was the doctor who helped to stop the spread of Ebola in Nigeria by insisting on strict isolation of the index case, Patrick Sawyer, but later died after contracting the virus. In a press briefing yesterday on the first anniversary of declaration of Nigeria as Ebola-free, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, said the response to the outbreak, which brought together the finest hands in the control, showed the true capacity of Nigeria.

Awute said, “The sacrifices of the late Dr. Adadevoh, the entire team at First Consultant Hospital in Lagos, all health workers and their family members dead and alive, remain one we shall forever cherish.” He added that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will soon establish a survival clinic in collaboration with tertiary health institutions to address the issue of relapse in survival. “Since Nigeria was declared Ebola-free, the global Ebola control environment has changed based on new evidence around care for Ebola in pregnancy, survivors’ related symptoms, discovery of Ebola vaccine, relapse of the disease and most recently, evidence of sexual transmission of the disease by survivors carrying the virus in their semen and vaginal secretions,” he noted.

The wife of the Niger State governor, Dr. Amina Abubakar Bello, has decried the increase in cases of cancer in Nigeria even as she gave a panacea for the prevention of breast cancer among women in the country. The governor’s wife who is also a medical doctor said at the Fifth Chukker Breast Cancer Awareness campaign in Minna yesterday that cancer can be prevented with regular check-ups. While saying that breast cancer is common among women in Nigeria, she stated, “The type of cancer experienced in the country of recent is preventable and every woman needs to do regular check -ups to ascertain whether they have breast cancer or not”.

“What we are trying to do is to ensure that every ward in Niger State has at least one family   healthcare centre that will be able to provide 24 hours service for preventive and therapeutic measures”. “We are embarking on a free breast cancer screening across the state. All we need to do is to increase the capacity of the family healthcare workers in the state”. Dr Bello explained that since the cost of cancer treatment is high, women should embrace   preventive measures,

The Guild of Medical Laboratory Directors has asked Nigerians to ascertain the authenticity and qualifications of any person who wants to run a laboratory diagnosis on them to check quackery. The guild said that most cases of conflicting and inaccurate results of laboratory tests arise when untrained and uncertified persons parade themselves as laboratory scientists. The chairman, Abuja chapter of the guild, Mr Mkpanam Ekanem, stated this yesterday when the   directors visited LEADERSHIP headquarters in Abuja,saying the fraudsters are out there to discredit their profession. 

He said, “We know there are people who were driven away from medical school after so many years and we know such persons know a lot. Most of them start up laboratory practice and the wrong results   are what you get out of such places.” “If you go to a medical laboratory for an examination, and somebody wants to take your blood sample, ask him if he is a medical lab scientist. There is nothing wrong with that. If he is not one, he will be angry with you,” he said. According to Ekanem, Nigerians should start demanding that the right thing be done by the right persons as this will help professionals to rise up to their responsibility while stamping out quackery.

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world in celebrating World Polio Day coming up on the 24th of this   month, Rotary District 9124 has declared that polio could be the first human disease of the 21st   century to be eradicated. Speaking to journalists yesterday in Abuja to flag off the four-day event, the chairman, Nigeria National Polio Plus Committee, Dr. Tunji Funsho said for as little as US60 cents worth of vaccine,   a child can be protected against this crippling disease for life. He said, “After an international investment of more than $9 billion, and the successful engagement of over 20 countries and 20 million volunteers, polio could be the first human disease of the 21st   century to be eradicated.”

He reiterated that polio eradication is Rotary’s top philanthropic goals as it has spent over $270   million on polio activities in Nigeria alone. According to Funsho, since the global initiative began more than 26 years ago, Rotary has contributed over $1.9 billion globally and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than two billion children in 122 countries. He said this effort has helped in reducing polio cases by 99.9 per cent worldwide, saying, “over 99   per cent of the children of the world have received polio vaccine. You can find polio only in two nations, not in the 125 countries when we started in 1988.”

Source:Leadership Online