Owolabi, during an interview with The Guardian, said, “We pick cancer cases in this country typically at final stages three and four, but if cases are picked at stage one, they can actually be cured, for example a minor excision can be done to cure the cancer of the cervix if picked at stage one.
“But this has to be achieved through a comprehensive health screening, because at the early stages, the body exhibits no symptoms,” he said.
According to him, the cost of ill health is high; therefore health screenings are better, because prevention is cheaper than cure.
He also attributed the rise of non-communicable disease in the country to the ever changing life style trend and the sedentary attitude of people.
Owolabi cited the instance of people seating behind the desk most time of the day during working hours and the consumption of lots of fast foods and sugary things as a leading cause. “All these are things that compound; with the fact people do not seem to have time for regular exercise,” he added.
He stressed, if we screen for cancer and pick them at the early stages, we will have less need for purchasing expensive equipment for the treatment of this scourge. Little cost to screen, huge cost to treat, should be considered, for a screen in time saves life, he said.
The Medifield boss explained: “At the onset of most of these non communicable diseases, they are reversible through health screenings and life style modification, and that is why as part of our screening scope, we have a life style center where people can get in to initiate the life style changes that are required to reverse conditions like the pre hypertension, pre diabetes, obesity among others.”
Owolabi who was the first Nigerian to receive a certification in Health Care Quality Management in 2003 from the Health Care Quality Board, United States, identified lack of quality as the major challenge of the Nigerian health system.
“Nobody is actively measuring and managing quality, the quality of practice and standard in our hospitals and to ensure clinical guidelines such that if you go to any of the hospital within the health insurance system you can expect some degree of uniformity in standard.”
On the assessment of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), he said, though it is positive, but needs to be improved to get more people into it as well as broaden the scope to have a system that takes care of the vulnerable groups.
Health system that is inventive like ours, Owolabi stated, is not part of the NHIS, but it is important for government to consider it.
Responding to the ongoing spread of Lassa fever in some parts of the country, he pointed out, “It is in the purview of public health, so the need for a rapid response system. We need to get the root causes to define what we are dealing with.”
He added that oftentimes, lack of rapid response contributes to why diseases become endemic in the country.Asked how screening can generally improve the health care system in Nigeria, Owolabi explained; When it comes to health screenings, every Nigerian that is concerned about their well being and do not want a health shock is a target.
He further expatiated “What we do here at Medifield is what is done in advance health system and it is an integral part of the health system, so it should be part of our health system too.
With his 26 years medical experience, he evaluated, the life expectancy in Nigeria currently is about 52, in Japan, is 82, in United Kingdom is 81, in Germany is 81 and in America is 80.
And this is not just attributable to advance health system that cures many diseases, but a health system that prevents these diseases through comprehensive health screenings, so that is to say health screenings can help improve the health and well being of Nigerians.
He continued, “It is unfortunate that though these comprehensive health checks have the most advanced health insurance packages, it covers less than two per cent of the people with about 98 per cent off it.
Asked about his take on the issue of mistrust in the health system, the former Head of Operations and Quality at Hygeia Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), lamented, “there is mistrust in the Nigerian health system and that perhaps also needs attention, despite this, the health system can still handle quite a number of things locally.
To improve the health standard in the country, Owolabi noted; government would have to strengthen the primary health care system, “if this is done, more than 70 per cent of the things that causes death, like infant and maternal mortality among others which require simple interventions at the primary level will be avoided.”
He further said, if the National Health Bill is implemented, it will provide funding for primary health care and hopefully if the funds are well applied, and then we should have a good future regarding health in the country.
The public health expert confirmed how high cost of medical equipment affects affordability of quality health care.“The truth is, to get a health care set up with quality assurance like ours, is capital intensive and technology changes from time to time, so improving the diagnostic index of these equipment as well as upgrading them are expensive too.”
He however appealed to government to help wavers off duties for some of the equipment, “am sure it will cascade to the common man because it is about the well being of Nigerian,” he added.
He also noted: “The cost of medical equipment might affect cost of health, but health checks contribute more to the curative measures.”
It is regrettable to say some of our medical equipment is shipped abroad for calibration and maintenance because we do not find reliable maintenance services locally.
He was, however, quick to add that is why we need to have the educational system that will also produce people that are trained in bio engineering to foster the understanding and functional principles behind the maintenance of these equipment.
When our correspondent inquired about the rational of a mobile medical unit, he responded saying, the idea of the mobile medical unit actually came when we had cause to go out to present health screening on sites to our clients, and it also served the purpose of taking health care to the people
No comments:
Post a Comment