‘Tele-healthcare will revive Nigeria’s decrepit health infrastructure’

Nigeria’s public healthcare managers and organisations desirous of reviving the country’s dilapidated health infrastructure have been advised to embrace modern tele-healthcare model, as against the old practice of building public health facilities that are often left to rot away, due to poor use.

Reacting to plan by the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN) to build new Primary Health Centres across the 774 Local Councils in the country, the Managing Director, Pre Diagnosis International, Dr. John Iguve, said the plan was to help the country deliver efficient healthcare services to the vulnerable, especially in underserved areas, where rural population that needs help reside.

PSHAN recently announced that under its Adopt-a-Health-Facility Programme (ADHFP), it designed a plan that “entails delivering one Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in each of Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) at global standards”.

It also said ADHFP would be sponsored by a group of Angel Investors and other institutions, who would each take responsibility for one or more PHCs on a Build, Operate and Transfer terms for the period of adoption under strict rules and guidelines.

While lauding PSHAN for coming out to help, Iguve said the focus of building PHCs, in the light of the country’s past experience, could not offer an innovative solution to the existing challenge of providing efficient healthcare services, especially in rural, hard-to-reach areas.

He also said PDI had harnessed technology to develop an app that would allow individuals to consult and receive wholesale treatment for many minor and major health challenges from doctors, via the cellphone without physically visiting the hospital.

“Tele-healthcare, which is a growing ark of telemedicine, has become a cheaper alternative for most countries that desire a radical solution to their public healthcare delivery challenges. This is the direction in which Nigeria must move,” he said.