Addressing Nigeria’s Healthcare Challenge: The Dr. Okobah Initiative

Feature

There seems to be a general agreement among professionals and ordinary Nigerians that the worrisome challenges in the country’s healthcare system have culminated into an exodus of qualified doctors, nurses and the related healthcare practitioner. Omon-Julius Onabu writes that the decision by internationally recognized family physician, Dr Isioma Okobah, to set up a hospital in Asaba, Delta State, is a practical step towards addressing the country’s healthcare challenge, including the resultant brain drain

The challenges confronting the healthcare system in Nigeria are as complex as they are numerous. They range from institutional problems and dearth of relevant infrastructure to human resources inadequacy, including poor training and service delivery conditions. These numerous problems have constituted a push-factor for the expdus of thousands of Nigerian-trained doctors, nurses and other categories of paramedical personnel to countries in America, Europe and Asia in an increasing fashion especially in the last two decades.

For example, in a report in 2020, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) noted that over 33,000 of the 75,000 doctors registered officially in the country, left Nigeria, which implies that just about 50 percent of the registered medical doctors were left behind to cater for the healthcare needs of about 200 million people! And, quoting reliable World Bank development statistical development indicators, a 2018 report showed that there were 0.3806 doctors to 1,000 persons in the country. Moreover, dependable records showed that last year a total of 5,407 Nigeria-trainedvmedical doctors are currently in the service of the British National Health Service (BNHS). The prevailing atmosphere of insecurity in the country has combined with the problems of poor condition of service and inadequate facilities in the country’s healthcare system to exacerbate the negative effect of the brain drain in Nigeria’s health sector.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with THISDAY on the conception of First Delta American Hospital in the Asaba metropolis, the CEO/Chairman of the healthcare facility, Dr (Mrs) Isioma Theresa Okobah, identified brain-drain as a major issue and challenge in Nigeria’s health sector today. She, nevertheless, admitted that the problem of brain-drain was so enormous and profound that the government must brace up and play the rquired pivotal role in addressing and reversing it. However, inspired by her belief in the axiom that it is better to light a candle than to dissipate energy cursing the darkness, she decided to step out of her abode for decades in Atlanta in Georgia, United States of America (USA) by returning to give back home, as it were, where she began her professional career as a medical student of the University of Benin in Nigeria.

Global collaboration and healthcare funding

Okobah disclosed that FDAH is an offshoot and affiliate of the First Lithonian Medical Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America (USA) which has continued to sponsor her Nigerian whose management she also heads, adding that it was born out of the need to strengthen the local healthcare system in the country. She assured that facilities at the hospital were of global standard and the service delivery truly personalized across all strata of the hospital, from the management down to the supportive staff of the facility.

She underscored the fact that FDAH was also conceived as means of discouraging medical tourism among the people of Delta State and Nigeria in general. The said operations at the hospital started in 2019 at a three-bed space, adding that there would be need to expand from the present 20-bed space in order to to continue to deliver quality and efficient healthcare to the people.

Moreover, she said that since the benefit of hindsight has taught her that funding was crucial to efforts aimed at addressing the plethora of challenges in the sector, the FDAH has begun talks with a reputable commercial Bank in Nigeria and also fine-tuning plans to access the various opportunities offered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in forms of grants and loan facilities.

“We decided to move from a three-room personalized facility, which we established here in 2019 to a 20-bed space facility because we saw real growth; and, we give God Almighty thanks for the growth and expansion that we have achieved. The collaboration we have at the moment is with Lithonia Medical Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, which sponsors a lot of activities here at the FDAH, in addition to the fact that we can also do telemedicine.

“Currently, we have the digital X-ray machine coming in, so we’re looking at at funding from banks; and, we have been talking to Zenith Bank. We all know that healthcare service is not cheap and something that an individual will be able to bear alone.”

Sharpening intervention strategies and meeting future challenges

By the admission of the stakeholders, particularly the medical practitioners and others in related disciplines, there are many hurdles in the way of improving the healthcare delivery capacity of Nigerian health authorities. The search for greener pasture overseas has led to nearly 50 percent of medical doctors, who are officially registered with the Nigerian Medical Association, leaving the country. However, Dr Isioma Okobah maintained that there is a ray of hope, going forward. According to the CEO of FDAH, the way to go, aside inevitable government intervention in the operating environment, is the “massive adoption and deployment of appropriate technology” by medical professionals as well as increased international collaboration.

She warned that the lessons from the COVID-19 experience should not be lost on Nigerians, adding that the country must embrace telemedicine and virtual medical practice. “With COVID-19, it brought to the front burner the need for us to really improve on our healthcare system in Nigeria because it will get to a point where no one can leave their country, and you will then be depending on the healthcare you have in Nigeria.

“So, that also brings into focus and use telemedicine or what we call virtual-medicine. With telemedicine, we are able to consult with patients via either telephone or video, and we can actually prescribe medications or have them go to the nearest hospital if there is the need for it. This, with the advancement of telemedicine, you don’t have to have a physical contact with some of your patients; though some need to come in or have physical contact and you can examine them. But most of this (telemedicine) has really helped with patient management and healthcare delivery services across the world. Telemedicine or virtual-medicine is really helpful, and that is what we have embraced in FDAH.”

Responding to the COVI-19 challenge and brain drain

Okobah noted that with the COVID-19 pandemic actually served as an eye-opener for medical professionals like herself especially in the Diaspora. Dr Okobah said that there was need to pay more attention to the healthcare system particularly in the communities in order to build confidence among Nigerians who usually seek medical attention outside the shores of the country.

“When we had the lockdown, nobody could travel, we were all here. So, if we have healthcare facilities which we run outside to access abroad, there would be no need to do that. “I want to appeal to my colleagues in the Diaspora to come back home and join to build the system. We cannot sit in America, Canada or London and continue to condemn the system in Nigeria. I know the government needs to play a big role in all this especially by creating an enabling environment, but professionals outside the shores of the country must do something.”

She admitted that the problem of brain drain was a big one that requires the intervention of the Federal Government because of existing unsatisfactory condition in which the medical professionals were working vis-a-vis inadequate facilities and numeration for healthcare services but urged those in the Diaspora to be willing to come in and support the government while it makes effort to fix the healthcare system.

“In being in America for over two decades, it became important that I heeded the yearning to return home and to give back to the community; and, that is how, about a decade ago, I started the Stephen Uche Okoh Memorial Hospital under the Dr Isia Okobah Foundation in my village in Igbodo, Ika North-East Local Government Area. That is totally free and a charitable outlet for people with medical ailments.

“In the cause of doing that, I thought that it would be a good thing to have a place where people can actually come to and, that way help to reduce medical tourism that exist in Nigeria today. The situation where people have the money to access medical healthcare and are looking forward to going to America, Canada or England, you need to understand that the doctors you see there are people like us who are still there practising. And, in those countries or the civilized world, healthcare is very, very expensive. So, if you can bring such quality healthcare services nearer home, where it is much cheaper – I can tell you that healthcare in Nigeria is much cheaper than what you can get anywhere in the world – then you are offering that same quality of service, it will be great.

“Then, I can actually reach out to my colleagues in Diaspora to let them know that, like Her Excellency (Dame Okowa) would say, Changing the world one person at a time. So, we can all,bin our own different ways, change and throw in our own different contributions. We can’t all be consultants in America, Canada or England and forget home. You know that you can come back home and do something for Nigeria and be part of the healthcare system. We can all be merely engaged in the blame game and we don’t do anything to help to improve the healthcare.”

Need for better service delivery

Following approval by the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the 2017 Winner of the prestigious American Academy of Family Physician Fellow’s Award was appointed as the Chairman of the Delta State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, a responsibility that also placed on her shoulder the supervision of the Delta State E-Health Programme. Dr Okobah also acknowledged that the assignment has been both challenging and inspiring and expressed her appreciation to the governor for reposing such confidence in her.

“For Delta State, Governor Okowa has done a very good job in making sure that there is health for all, bridging the inequality by setting up the Delta State Health Insurance Scheme, which actually caters for pregnant women, children aged zero to five years and also the elderly who have been accessing the insurance scheme. The health insurance is a way of achieving the universal health coverage”, she noted.

The choice of the Wife of the Delta State Governor, Dame Edith Okowa as the special guest to inaugurate FDAH situated in the heart of the state capital was deliberate, Dr Okobah told THISDAY. She hinted at the uncommon passion of Delta First Lady to working to improve the well-being of the people of the state as amply demonstrated through the various programmes and projects of her humanitarian organisation, the ‘05 Initiative’. This, she observed, has enabled the wife of the governor to touch numerous lives via her various medical outreaches with free eye-care services and several state-of-the-art sickle cell facilities across the 25 local government areas of the state. She said she had also had the privilege of working with her on her outreach to the prisons and other activities of the 05 Initiative.

And, while formally decaring FDAH open a couple of days ago, Dame Edith Okowa called on Nigerians with means to encourage and support the efforts of the government to tackle the many healthcare challenges in the society through investment in functional and modern health facilities as well as training sponsorship.

She equally said she longed to see medical practitioners, including doctors nurses and other caregivers, ensuring that they attend to people seeking medical attention humanely and with the fear of God at all times. She admonished medical practitioners and caregivers who were in the habit of being hostile to patients and clients to change such attitude in line with the demands and ethical standards of their respective professional callings. “Please at all times, be polite and friendly to patients who seek your services, because nobody who is feeling good or has eaten well in his house would come to the hospital. So, the words you use to welcome patients is the first step in the healing process,” the Delta First Lady said.

Nonetheless, the founder of the ‘05 Initiative’ commended the FDAH CEO and Chairman for embarking on such a worthy cause, describing the establishment of the facility in the state as timely and a huge relief because it is bound to impact the lives of Deltans and other Nigerians directly and positively.

Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mordi Ononye, who was the special guest of honour at the ceremony, also commended proprietor of the hospital for the initiative, saying that it would go a long way to complement efforts of the Okowa administration in the provision of quality healthcare to the people of the state.

In his remarks, Dr Christopher O. Okobah, husband of the FDAH CEO, said that the inspiration, energy and enthusiasm of his wife could only be by divine enablement. He stressed that Dr Isioma was not only infectiously passionate about service to humanity for a period spanning over two decades, but has remained a tireless warhorse in the pursuit of entrenching a world-class healthcare culture in her fatherland.

According to him, the establishment of First Delta America Hospital in Asaba will go a long way in reducing the need for Nigerians to go in search of quality healthcare services outside the shores of Nigeria. He thanked the state’s First Lady for her commitment to the well-being of children, women and other vulnerable members of the society through the 05 Initiative, saying the FDAH was also in tandem with the efforts of the State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa not only in the health sector by in the area of job creation.

He said, “The efforts of Dr Okobah also coincides with His Excellency, Governor Okowa’s initiatives with emphasis on improving the well-being of Deltans by expanding access to quality healthcare services.”