PharmAccess Foundation, and the committee of Chief Medical Directors (CMDs)/ Medical Directors (MDs) of Federal Tertiary Hospitals, has hosted the Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, in its 95th Regular review meeting.

The meeting which held at Radisson Blu Ikeja Lagos over two days (6th and 7th of September) had the objective of brainstorming on the challenges confronting the health sector and how the services provided by public tertiary institutions can be improved.

Giving his address, the Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, spoke about the importance of public-private partnership in building Nigeria’s health sector. He noted that the challenges in the health sector are enormous and require all hands to be on deck to help salvage the current situation.

Mamora said: “The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) recognizes the immense contributions of your committee in the development and improvements in the health sector. I am aware that the challenges in the health sector are multidimensional but advocacy with stakeholders is necessary to address them.

“Most of these challenges are not directly within the purview of the Ministry but may require a multi-sectoral approach in resolving them. You will agree with me that the challenges within the health sector are enormous and as stakeholders, we must unite in finding solutions and chart the way forward to ensure steady development of the system. This is an important sector to the overall development of the country. We need to build a healthy nation within the limited resources available.”

“May I, therefore, seize this opportunity to reiterate that the Federal Ministry of Health is open to suggestions, collaborations/partnerships with stakeholders as well as development partners towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for the Nigerian People. We appreciate the importance of a multi-sectoral approach in achieving these goals that your committee is greatly exploring.”

The Minister further commended PharmAccess Foundation and the committee of CMDs for taking out time to examine and find solutions to the health challenges.

Related News

Earlier speaking, the Country Director of PharmAccess Nigeria, Ms. Njide Ndili, commended the CMDs for the great turnout for the meeting which she said is an indication of their commitment to dialogue and finding solutions to improve the quality of healthcare delivery.

“As we focus on our quest to achieve universal health coverage, it is very important to recognize that without quality service delivery and better health outcomes, people will be reluctant to prepay for healthcare; making it difficult for us to achieve Universal Health Coverage as a nation by 2030. We must build trust in the healthcare delivery system so patients can have confidence that they will receive good quality care after purchasing health insurance packages.

“Through our presentations today, we will showcase practical steps towards quality improvement and transformational leadership. Tertiary institutions will be able to measure and benchmark their facilities against a defined standard of service and health outcome. In addition, it is the role of CMDs to drive quality from the top, down to the bottom, promoting a culture of excellence in service delivery” Ndili said.

The meeting featured a presentation by PharmAccess titled Quality Improvement in Tertiary Hospitals. It was led by the Senior Program Manager SafeCare PharmAccess foundation, Dr Anire Asumah.  The presentation also outlined SafeCare quality improvement work at FMC Ebute Metta Lagos state.

Mr. Peter Bankole, The Director of the Enterprise Development Center (EDC)of Pan African University presented the detailed curriculum of the Healthcare Management program which is a transformational leadership program for healthcare managers developed by PharmAccess Foundation in collaboration with EDC to help healthcare leaders manage their organizations profitably.

Meanwhile, PharmAccess’s SafeCare Standards 4.0 was recently reaccredited by The International Society for Quality (ISQua) in Health Care External Evaluation Association for the 4th time.