Osinbajo, Alpha Mead launch first mobile hospital in Africa

Osinbajo, who was represented by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said the new medical facility, which is the first in Africa, would support the government’s effort towards transforming medical diagnostics in the country.

In her keynote address, she said: “Alpha Mead Healthcare Management Services Ltd and its global healthcare facilities have the potential to reduce barriers to healthcare access in Nigeria.”

The Modular Healthcare Facility is a customised hospital, which is mobility-enhanced, prefabricated with detachable modules equipped with state-of-the-art clinical and diagnostic equipment that can attend to over 1,000 people with health issues remotely.

Some of the components of the MHF are Digital X-ray, Computerised Tomography (CT) scan, laboratory, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), reception and administrative section with digital communication tools to help patients communicate with medical experts connected worldwide who would attend to patients, interpret lab results and prescribe drugs virtually, thereby solving the problem of distance and competence.

Group Chairman, Alpha Mead Group, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, revealed that the medical facility was created against the backdrop of 2019 data from the Nigeria Health Facility Register (NHFR), showing that the country has 40,345 registered hospitals and clinics to serve its 201 million-strong population. He said this implies that one healthcare facility is responsible for an estimated 5,000 Nigerians.

“The whole idea of the MHF is to aggressively drive the penetration of healthcare facilities in Nigeria by reducing the construction timeline of a healthcare facility to less than 30 days — saving the time lost in design, construction, equipment installation and addressing the issue of inadequate medical practitioners, particularly doctors in the rural areas or crisis zones, by leveraging technology to connect patients with medical doctors anywhere through its telemedicine facilities.”