PharmAccess, EDC Collaborate to Build Capacity of Healthcare Providers

Martins Ifijeh

As part of efforts to strengthen capacity of healthcare providers in areas of quality assurance, finance, business and inventory management, PharmAccess Foundation, in collaboration with the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan Atlantic University have introduced Healthcare Management Programme (HMP), a certificate course.

The programme, according to them is structured to support professional development of medical doctors, pharmacists, laboratories scientists/technicians, dentists, health industry regulators to deepen capacity along the healthcare value chain in Nigeria.

The Country Director, PharmAccess Foundation Nigeria, Njide Ndili, in a statement said people running healthcare organisations need to understand how to manage their organisations as businesses.

“PharmAccess is hopeful that the skills acquired during the five-month course will help participants build more profitable businesses and facilitate more access to quality healthcare for Nigerians.

“Over the years we have ran several programmes in the healthcare space. However, we have come to realise working with hospitals and healthcare providers, that there is a knowledge gap in the industry and the HMP was developed to bridge that gap,” Ndili stated.

The Deputy Director, Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), Pan Atlantic University Nneka Okekearu, said the collaboration would deepen practitioners in the healthcare delivery system.

According to her, HMP is designed to make healthcare providers understand that quality healthcare is much broader than providing care to patients.

“Today’s most successful healthcare professionals are also knowledgeable in essential business and management principles,” Okekearu stated.

Okekearu stated that professionals along the healthcare value chain must be able to effectively lead people, understand the financial landscape, create budgets and navigate the regulatory environment either they manage health facilities or work as private practitioners.

The HMP course modules focuses on overview of the healthcare landscape in Nigeria, regulatory, legal and tax issues in Nigeria, Operations management in business, Principles of contracting and procurement in healthcare business, Financial management, Developing a business plan for healthcare business, Infrastructure development and equipment management, Business ethics and corporate governance, and Quality assurance in healthcare delivery.