A collaboration between JNC International and the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, recently brought together a team of cardiovascular surgeons from the United States, who performed successful open heart surgeries at the teaching hospital.

 

To stem the tide of increasing capital flight through medical tourism often embarked upon by Nigerians, which had been to the detriment of the Nigerian health sector, JNC International, in collaboration with the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan recently hosted a team of cardiovascular surgeons from Tri-State Cardiovascular Institute, USA. The team carried out successful cardiovascular surgical procedures at the hospital's Catheterization Laboratory (Cath. Lab) in Ibadan.

 

The Catheterization Laboratory, which is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between JNC International and UCH, is geared towards making quality health care delivery available and affordable to patients in Nigeria, as well as facilitate medical tourism in the country. The UCH Cath. lab was used for various categories of cardiovascular procedures from May 9 to 12 this year. According to senior Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon from HBS Hospital in Bangalore, Southern part of India, Dr Mohammed Rehan Sayeed, during the surgical procedure in Ibadan, Nigeria has a very large volume of congenital heart disease victims because of the fact that as a country, it is divided into many tribes and the tendency to marry within the tribes is resulting in a lot of congenital heart diseases.

 

"A lot of these children are dying, because they can't get proper treatment. And now I'm beginning to understand that the National Insurance Scheme has accepted cardiac surgery and cardiac disease as one of the diseases for which they will pay," he explained. With about 1.5 million naira or thereabouts as cost per average surgery case here in Nigeria as stated by the experts, Sayeed said there were quite a number of patients in Nigeria with vascular heart disease, especially rheumatic vascular heart disease; hence they intend to perform all the surgeries in a space of three to four days while keeping the programme alive.

 

"Also, this is to see how we can get the cardiac programme with UCH and see how we can get back cardiac surgery as a programme on ground with the help of the team from Tristate Cardiovascular Institute, " he said. In his words, "Over the last four years, I have seen that the interest in Nigeria is going well and JNCI is putting together an outstanding facility. The challenge is now to try and train the local doctors and nurses and technicians that some of the doctors are already trained in India."

 

He, however, advised that Nigeria needed to build up a very robust primary health care for all her teaching and corporate hospitals and there is need to have small primary health care centres to educate the people that if they get frequent fever and sore throat, it's not good for them. He added, "You need to take health care into all the villages with basic sanitation and treat diseases aggressively." While fielding questions from reporters, the Managing Director of JNCI, Mrs. Clare Omatseye, stated that the company is committed to assisting in curbing the exodus of Nigerians to foreign countries for medical reasons. "We have resolved to partner with medical institutions to acquire state-of-the-art equipment under our PPP plan," Omatseye added.

 

Speaking further, she said: "It has so far lived up to expectations as numerous cases of open heart surgeries have been carried out successfully at the facility. JNCI is committed to curbing the emigration of Nigerians to foreign countries for medical intervention and this company is ready to partner with medical institutions to acquire state-of-the-art equipment under their PPP plan."

 

Following the recent statement by the CEO, Martreach Global Services (an agency, which facilitates trips for individuals travelling abroad for health care), Mr. Martin Okonkwo, that fixing the Nigerian health system through PPP is the only sure way of ending medical tourism in the country, Omatseye lamented, "We just got some news recently that Arik Air will now fly to India daily, because a lot of people travel to India these days just to get treatment. That is a bad trend for Nigeria.

 

"Thus, my company is at the forefront to see how we can turn around that negative trend. Beyond supplying the equipment, we go the extra mile to maintain the medical equipment in our routine maintenance scheme by our team of well-trained engineer. And, rather than have UCH pay entirely, she said, "JNCI is taking this project with UCH and also in partnership with the bank to ensure that the hospitals don't have to pay everything. We are trying our best to ensure that our doctors are also equipped and they are empowered to carry out procedures in Nigeria; hence we support them for further trainings abroad."

 

While relaying an experience on a case, a consultant cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, Tristate Cardiovascular Association, Dr Michael Sanusi, explained that the 9th surgery was on a 44-year-old lady, who had a problem with one of her heart valves as a result of rheumatic fever she had when she was a child. "While she grew older, the protein from the rheumatic fever had eaten up one of the valves between two of the chambers in the heart such that the valve could neither open nor close properly.

 

"Later on, the medical activity of the heart chamber became abnormal. This will eventually cause heart failure if it is not taken care of. We changed the valve and put in a mechanical valve (metal alloy valve) that will stay open and close for the rest of her life," he stated.

 

With the recent progress in the health sector, Sanusi said, "I think the Nigerian health sector is on the brink of a revolution in a positive way. Right now, there are more trained Nigerians from outside the country (who practised outside the country) coming back home to contribute. I trained in the US for about 15 years before returning home and to help develop the health system. One of the problems killing our health sector is a proper medical insurance. You will see that a lot of medical and heart care can be really expensive and the way the rest of the world handles it is that they have medical insurance. "We all pay a small amount of money every month and if any of us gets sick that money will be used to treat that person so that the person would not have to sell his house or become bankrupt to take care of himself. I think once that is done then the sky is the limit for health care in Nigeria."

 

Meanwhile, the consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Mudasiru Salami added that cardiovascular care is an expensive field in terms of the amount of fund or capital you have to inject to do this. He maintained that all the cases carried out have been 100 per cent successful. "We have been able to develop our own personnel, we have been able to lower cost and we have been able to treat more people," he stated.

 

The team of six doctors led by Dr. Rahan, the cardiac surgeon, included cardiac anaesthetist and three nurses. While partnering with JNCI for infrastructure, Tristate is for the technical aspect and the local cardiac team; all do it together as Nigerians are assured that UCH is ready.

 

JNCI, a leading provider of medical equipment in Nigeria, has been in the forefront in the healthcare sector in Nigeria. With this innovation, the leader of the team from Tristate, Prof Kamar Adeleke, assured that a number of Nigerian hospitals are well equipped to cater for most medical needs that currently take people outside the country at very affordable cost.

 

BY REBECCA EJIFOMA,

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