… Says We Must Modernize Healthcare Facilities, Adopt Cutting-Edge Technologies
Dr Benjamin Ademuyiwa Eniayewun is the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Health Service Commission, Nigeria.
A trained Surgeon, Dr Eniayewun has held a variety of senior leadership roles in healthcare in the Lagos civil service. Notably, he was the first Medical Director of the Maternal and Child Centre Amuwo-Odofin and the Medical Director of the Alimosho General Hospital Igando and then Lagos Island Maternity.
In 2015 he consolidated his medical and managerial skills by completing an MBA at the University of Warwick.
Dr Eniayewun joined the IHF Governing Council in November 2020.
We took the time out to know what have been his efforts towards improving health care delivery in Lagos?
Are there some cutting edge technologies initiatives from him towards health and educational development in Lagos?
What are his other achievements in terms of humanitarian services and community developments?
What are the challenges mitigating against achievement of reduced maternal mortality rate?
And to know how to reduce the japa syndrome among medical practitioners?
What can be done differently in order to achieve the renewed hope and mega status of Lagos both in the area of health and education?
And in conclusion, his message to Lagosians in particular and Nigerians in general on best way of keeping healthy.
His responses;
In the health space, we initiated the digital transformation of our operations by introducing electronic medical records in more than 80% of the state general hospitals.
We have also digitized most of our staff records and we are on the way to paperless operations. We have created platforms for online continuous medical education programs for all clinical professionals too.
Additionally, we are in the process of deploying ten medical e-libraries in 12 general hospitals across the state. These are leap frog technology. And in the educational space, we started by placements of an e-library in a community center which eventually became a digital learning hub for the whole of Ikorodu division.
THE E-LIBRARY PACKAGE: E-learning; A solution to medical education.- leap frog technology
Right now, we are in the process of deploying additional 8 e-libraries to schools and institutions across the state.
As a trained Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, I have worked, advocated and undertaken many initiatives to reduce maternal and prenatal mortality. In the cause of my career, I was Medical Director in three general hospitals namely; Amuwo Odofin Maternal and Child Centre, Alimosho General Hospital and Lagos Island Maternity.
In the first hospital which I pioneered, we were able to achieve near-zero mortality and in the last two hospitals, we were able to substantially bring down mortality rate to less than 10%. As permanent secretary, we extended this initiative to all the General Hospitals with great success.
We played a pivotal role in the Covid-19 response, training and deploying all the health workers involved in the response. We set up and operationalize the intensive care unit that was able to save many lives during Covid. We mobilized the hospitals and we were able to undertake many medical outreaches in communities and places across the length and breadth of the state.
While a lot has been achieved in reduction of maternal and perinatal mortality in the state, we still have challenges in the area of primary delays in utilization of services, harmful practices such as patronage of quacks and traditional birth attendants leading to late presentations, shortage of skilled manpower as a result of high staff turnover of skilled manpower.
This is necessitating continuous training and skill transfer. Poor access to facilities as a result of inadequate spread as many new communities spring up due to the increasing population of Lagos State.
Affordability of services is also an issue from rising cost and poor coverage by health insurance. A lot of efforts are still needed to improve the functionality of the primary health centers across the states that are supposed to be more affordable and closer to the people.
Improvement in the functionality of the existing ambulance services is much needed to reduce delays as a result of the poor transportation system. While existing General Hospitals are doing a lot, more facilities are needed to reduce pressure and waiting time in the hospitals.
Japa is a major problem in Nigeria healthcare delivery and in Lagos particularly. Keeping up with the high rate of exit necessitates the adoption of mitigating strategies such as continuous global recruitment and fast track exit replacement.
Continuous medical education and skill transfer are very important to avoid a drop in the quality of healthcare delivery.
We have to prioritize the welfare of healthcare workers and work on improving the staff remuneration in line with international or in the very least, African standards. We need to modernize our healthcare facilities and adopt cutting-edge technologies that will improve the opportunity for workers to practice in a more conducive environment to boost their morale and increase productivity.
Introduction of performance-based bonuses will increase productivity and encourage specialization and upscaling. We have to increase pipeline production of health workers by building more training institutions and offering incentives such as scholarships for medical and allied students education.
Diasporans health workers should be encouraged or attracted to bring back the specialized skills gained abroad in one way or the other and by making special arrangements for such.
The challenges of provision of good qualitative affordable and accessible education and healthcare services in Lagos is enormous given the rising population due to daily influx of people from other parts of the country.
While a lot of efforts are being deployed to tackle these challenges, I believe more than the traditional interventions, we have to bring a lot of Innovations to overcome the challenges such as the adoption of leading cutting-edge technologies, universal health insurance coverage and improved emergency services. We have to engage more the private sector in public private partnerships that will help to release resources to better fund healthcare in Nigeria.
Also, more collaboration with ngos will also help in improved funding. A lot still has to be done, but it is very achievable.
We also have to pay attention to the area of equity in poorly or underserved areas especially low-resource settings have to be prioritized. Educational and healthcare facilities have to be deployed to these centers so as to carry everyone along in this 21st century.
The adoption of technologies like tele-medicine and digital health solutions, electronic medical records and Data Analytics, solar technology, virtual and remote learning platforms, e-libraries, mobile clinics, modern pre-Hospital care and
universal health insurance coverage.
My advice to Nigerians, Lagosians particularly is for us to adopt preventive measures such as healthy nutrition, balance diet, exercise by avoiding sedentary lifestyle, do regular medical check ups to ensure that ailments are detected early so that the problem can be solved decisively on time.
The issue of finance has to be paid attention to by registering with the Lagos State Health Insurance Agency. Insurance is better before you need it. We have to do insurance before we need it not when or after you need it so we should make effort to register either with any of the health insurance agencies because this will serve as a financial protection for the family whenever the need for health care intervention arises.
And we must commend our President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for all the Reforms being carried out in economy, health and education sectors as well as other areas of infrastructural development. We call on all Nigerians to give him the needed support to take the nation to greater heights.