....As Indian Health Centre Partners Nigeria Hospitals for Improved service

 

One of the prominent hospitals in the world, Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, India is partnering with Nigerian hospitals with a view to improving health care delivery for Nigerians. 

 

The partnership is expected to focus on tapping into cutting-edge technology and advanced research to make di- agnosis and treatment much accurate and pleasurable for both patients and healthcare givers. 

The goal of the collaboration as revealed at the meeting is patient-centred. 

 

A senior consultant urologist and andrologist at the Apollo Hospitals, Dr. Narasimhan Subramanian, disclosed during the two day Continuing Medical Education and free medical screening programme recently organised by his hospital, in partnership with Viewpoint Hospital in Abuja, that Nigeria needed the collaboration for effectiveness in meeting patients' 

needs. 

 

  Dr. Subramanian also used the medium to advise that before a patient seeks medical treatment in India, he or she should make the needed enquiry to ascertain the level of competence of the hospital. 

 

   "That is why we are collaborating with hospitals in Nigeria to make sure they get quality service when they get to India. 

 

Our hospitals have 20 branches in India with over 1,000 competent specialists. We were the second largest kidney and liver transplant unit last year in the world and our cost of treatment is one-fifth when compared to what is obtainable in other developed countries. 

 

 

   "We have our focus areas, which we term "centres of excellence" namely the heart institutes, institute of orthopaedics, institute of neurosciences, institute of cardiac sciences, cancer institutes and emergency care". 

 

   Dr Subramanian urged Nigerians to go for medical checkups regularly so that many diseases can be detected early and treated at a reduced cost, both to the patients and the hospitals, adding that such precautionary step would ensure curative treatment with less suffering. 

 

 He stated: "Unlike in the past, we are now able to detect cancers, and technology is also helping in treatment. Patients can now live longer even after 

detecting the disease in them. 

 

The common types of cancer amongst women are cancer of the breast, cervix and uterus, while amongst men are cancers of the lungs & prostrate. These cases are high in Africa. Some cancers like prostate are not preventable but early detection can make it curable.

 

   " He also urged patients to embrace new technologies for surgery, as it would reduce complications and improve and hasten their recovery and ensures early return to their routine work. 

 

 Dr Subramanian added: "Robotic surgery is less invasive. It reduces the pain after surgery and the patient is able to recover quickly. The Apollo Institute of Robotic surgery has been able to carry out 430 successful surgeries since it was inaugurated and we hope that more patients and experts will embrace this technology and benefit from it adequately." 

 

BY JOB OSAZUWA 

Daily Sun