A member of the House of Representatives, David Idris Zakarias, has urged Nigerians to embrace telehealth practices as a cost-saving alternative capable of halting the estimated $10 billion annual manpower waste in the health sector.

Zakarias, who represents Idah, Ibaji, Igalamela-Ofu Federal Constituency, made the call on Friday at a health event in Abuja.

He noted that Nigerians spend heavily on travel and logistics just to access medical personnel and facilities physically.

However, with the adoption of telehealth practices, he said most Nigerians would not need to visit medical centres except in rare health emergencies.

He said: “This initiative is very important, a very good idea to develop. I think it is one of the key points that we should welcome. We must be honest with ourselves.
“This is the first of its kind. We have been hearing, but it has drawn near to us. Sitting down in your home to get a treatment is one of the things that we have not seen before, and we have started feeling it now.
“Talking about the rural area, yes, technology has also spread across the globe, wherever you are now. As far as you can, you have what they call a phone to receive a call. So that is the only channel you can use.
“So getting a treatment from these people is very simple as long as you are receiving calls. And I can testify, I do not know about other areas, but the constituency I represent, there is no one left over, there is no place you cannot find network.
“As far as there is network, I believe you get the attention of these people and you get their service effectively.”

The Founder and Lead Person, Home Health Management Services Limited, Sam Adejoh Okedi, estimated that Nigeria loses about $10 billion to manpower.

Okedi said the vision of the organisation is to promote telehealth practice to ease medical care.

He said, “I will tell you that it is possible to save up to 10 billion dollars annually. Our vision is to have a continental footprint and that is the beauty of telemedicine and telehealth. We can be here, have a consultation with people in Ghana, in North Africa, South Africa or Eastern Africa.
“It is an upcoming and growing system, part of medicine and one good thing about this is to save costs, your travel costs.
“Because if you are leaving your house to go to the hospital, you are either buying fuel or you are taking a taxi, and you know anytime you leave your house you are also taking risks. You could have an accident.”