Doctors Launch Free Telemedicine Scheme in Nigeria

Posted on: Thu 03-12-2015

In an attempt to make healthcare delivery easier, faster and accessible to all Nigerians, a network of medical doctors has launched a free mobile technology platform in the country.

The group will be attending to various healthcare needs of Nigerians through a mobile technology when they dial 0700DOCTORS on their mobile phones without any charges.

Disclosing this at the programme launch held recently in Abuja, Dr. Hadassah Iwuono said with 'Phone A Doctor' things have to be better because they are here.

According to her, the medical solution is like healing from a distance. "The greatest impact of telemedicine is on the patient, their family and their community. Using phone a doctor reduces travel time and related stresses for the patient."

"Our vision is to make healthcare affordable, available and accessible to as many people as we van and I thinks the best channel to do this is through technology," she said.

Speaking also, Developer, Chief Executive Officer, ChitHub Medical Solutions, Engr. Michael Agbodo, said, in a country where doctor-to-patient ratio is greater than 5,000 and healthcare facilities grossly in adequate, the service aims to provide real time health care support to improve the industry and save lives.

"I'm not saying we are solving all the problem, but at least we are part of the solution. There must be a more creative way of solving our healthcare problems.

Agbodo said: "Phone a doctor is a telemedicine service with lots of channels that you use to get access to the same kind of service that any other person can get anywhere in the world.

"Our vision is to make healthcare affordable, available and accessible to as many people as we can and I think the best channel to do this is technology," he noted.

He stressed that with over 100 million mobile phone users, they hope to bridge the gap in health care delivery. "What we are doing is just more than a call centre, but we are getting doctors, hospitals, diagnostics centres, laboratories, drug prescriptions, drug delivery and remote clinic operations," adding that the service, is truly free for now until they understand the best approach that will make the service affordable, available and accessible.

"This is a starting posture. The idea is to have three groups of doctors- the in-house doctors who are working full time for call the doctor system, then you a network of doctors that work on full time basis but are allocated time to attend to patients and the network of specialists for different specialties both locally and internationally. All doctors on the system are certified by the regulatory medical body concerned and their profiles can viewed from the service website.

He however blamed the poor healthcare statistics in Nigeria as the reason for coming up with the service and hopes they will make an impact saying that medical tourism cost the Nigerian economy about half a billion dollars every year and choice destination is India but that is for those that afford it," he said.

By: Kasim Sumaina

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