…Partner firm, bank to acquire cancer-treatment machines, others
Stories by Ajuma Edwina Ogiri
Abuja
The Guild of Medical Directors (GMD), in Nigeria has said it would cut over $500 billion estimated to be spent by Nigerians on medical treatment abroad, by 50 per cent to help save the nation’s economy and health care system from crisis.
The National President of the Guild, Dr Tony Philips, who stated this in Abuja recently, said medical tourism was one of the ways through which the nation loses its fortunes, adding that promises by the government to halt the trend over the years have not yielded positive results.
The organisation, while signing a memorandum of understanding on instalmental payments for the purchase of health equipment with Siemens Biostadt, said the partnership seeks to allow doctors who operate their own hospitals buy health equipment at cheap prices from the company.
Dr. Philips explained that with the arrangement, any doctor managing their own hospital in the country could get any equipment they want with approval of the guild from the firm without any collateral.
He further added that they could pay just 10 percent of the cost of the equipment they want, while the remaining payment is stretched to a period of time.
He said: “We have been talking about how we could stem medical tourism down. There has always been talks but no action. We want to work as we talk.
“The whole idea is that doctors can now choose equipment they want for their practices and pay for it in a friendly manner.
“This is something that will be done all over the country for all our doctors, and they can always get this through the guild. This is our own contribution in bringing down medical tourism. And, we hope that our doctors will embrace it.
“The whole aim of this is that what you spend on tourism will be down. When you travel out, You pay for accommodation, you pay for transportation, You even pay for the person that accompanies you. But, when you have this here, from your house, you enter the clinic and you can go back to your house.”
“Devices to be purchased include those that are used for treating killer diseases such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes, hepatitis among others.”
Speaking, the Secretary-General of the guild, Dr Festus Osoba, said the private sector health practitioners render health care delivery to more than 60 percent of Nigerians.
He said: “What do we need to have our clients have confidence in us and to keep coming to us without having to go abroad. We need to have the expertise which we already have; We need to have training; We also need to have the equipment to be able to do it; We need financing.
Also speaking, the General Manager, Siemens Biostadt, Emmanuel Otitoloju, said his company was willing to help the country enjoy better health services, and use the gains from the partnership to tackle the current economic recession facing the nation.
He assured that beneficiaries would pay instalmentally, and that collateral would not be required, but signatures of executives of the guild.
The Funding for the partnership would be done by Fidelity bank.
