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[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_row_inner el_id=”newsletters”][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”About our Healthcare Conundrum” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:22|text_align:justify|color:%236699cc|line_height:1.8″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”25px”][vc_column_text]
The health sector in Nigeria is a constant topic and it occurs to you how vulnerable our citizens are each time someone is flown abroad, or someone dies from an otherwise avoidable causes. Let me just throw some random statistic at us. Nigerians spend an estimated US$200million a year on foreign healthcare. Nigeria does have a national health insurance scheme, but less than 7% of the population is covered by it. Indian High Commission in Lagos issues about 40 medical visas per day. Nigeria has 47 federal medical centers and university teaching hospitals to cater for the healthcare needs of its huge population. There are 700 general hospitals, more than 1,700 maternity units and 4,500 health centers. Privately owned profit-seeking, faith-based and voluntary hospitals accounts for at least 40 percent of all facilities in the country. More statistics: The 2017 national budget of N7.298 trillion presented had 4.17 percent allocated to the health sector and World Health Organization’s recommendation is 15 percent of budgetary allocation to health. The data obtained from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria as of May 30, 2018, revealed that 88,692 doctors are registered in their books. Of these doctors, only 45,000 are currently practicing and that gives us a ratio of one doctor to 4000 citizens(1:4000). World Health Organization recommends 1:600 (one doctor for every 600 persons). Nigeria graduates about 2300 doctors every year. Some little math for us: How many more doctors would be required to bridge the gap? How long will it take to produce that number of doctors?
And some more statistics: Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, successfully performed about 20 open and closed heart surgeries in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The University of Nigeria teaching hospital has between 2013 to date carried out over 300 open heart surgeries. The Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas has over 4000 members. About 5000 Nigerian doctors are registered to practice
in the UK.
The above statistics paints the picture that forms the basis for all the hullaballoo about the Nigerian healthcare infrastructure and framework. This conversation is going to be with us for as long as the issues are not fixed, and the reality is that this is highly unlikely to be fixed if we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.
The first thing we need to understand is that the paradigm that government will fix medical care without support from the private sector is in my view a daydream. It is highly unlikely that government will be able to sort out our medical infrastructure to the point where it is first rate. One of the most expensive buildings ever built is the Royal Adelaide Hospital, in Australia. It cost US$2.1 billion apart from the medical equipment which cost $245 million. How was this money raised? It is a public private partnership where government has created the enabling environment for private investment in healthcare. In most countries, both the universities and university hospitals are majorly funded by endowments from the corporates, NGO’s, alumni’s, and individuals. In 2013, the then New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg committed $350 million to Johns Hopkins University. The commitment lifted his lifetime giving to the Baltimore-based University to more than $1 billion, rendering him the most generous living donor to any single educational institution in the U.S. Today, John Hopkins University School of medicine has an endowment of $1.9 billion and John Hopkins University’s current endowment is $3.844 billion. As far back as the 1950’s the University College Ibadan received financial grants into its endowment fund from notable donors like, Nuffield, Ford Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation, United African Company, Cocoa Marketing Board.
The second thing to note is that social spending is more important than medical spending. What do I mean? Medical experts are increasingly coming to the conclusion that improving these “social determinants” often results in better long-term health than does intensive and expensive medical care. Some empirical data to support this: The major OECD countries on average spend about $1.70 on social services for each $1 on health services. But the US spends just 56 cents on social services per $1 health dollar. So, unlike most of the other OECD countries, America spends far less on social services like housing assistance, food aid, and child support than it does on medical services. The stats however show that despite spending by far the largest amount on healthcare, the USA was among the 10 OECD countries (out of 34 countries) with the lowest life expectancy. Research also shows that when you look at different states within America, the states with a higher ratio of social to health spending have significantly better health outcomes in many areas, including adult obesity, diabetes, lung cancer, asthma, and heart disease. Another statistic to buttress this theory is from the G7 group of countries where Japan is No 5 on the ranking for per person spend on healthcare but is No 1 in life expectancy and Italy spends the least per person on health care but is second highest in life expectancy.
The third thing to realize is that the medical services sector is one sector where the talent hunt is fierce. Nigeria has to compete favourably with a view to retaining Nigerian doctors and attracting foreigner doctors. In Nigeria today, an entry level doctor earns an average monthly salary of 250,000 naira ($700 per month). Whilst the average doctor monthly salary of a doctor in the US is $11,000.
How can we get our teaching hospitals run majorly on endowments? Can Nigeria improve its life expectancy by improving socio-economic factors? How can we compete favourably for talented doctors?
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[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”About our Healthcare Conundrum” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:22|text_align:justify|color:%236699cc|line_height:1.8″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]
The health sector in Nigeria is a constant topic and it occurs to you how vulnerable our citizens are each time someone is flown abroad, or someone dies from an otherwise avoidable causes. Let me just throw some random statistic at us. Nigerians spend an estimated US$200million a year on foreign healthcare. Nigeria does have a national health insurance scheme, but less than 7% of the population is covered by it. Indian High Commission in Lagos issues about 40 medical visas per day. Nigeria has 47 federal medical centers and university teaching hospitals to cater for the healthcare needs of its huge population. There are 700 general hospitals, more than 1,700 maternity units and 4,500 health centers. Privately owned profit-seeking, faith-based and voluntary hospitals accounts for at least 40 percent of all facilities in the country. More statistics: The 2017 national budget of N7.298 trillion presented had 4.17 percent allocated to the health sector and World Health Organization’s recommendation is 15 percent of budgetary allocation to health. The data obtained from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria as of May 30, 2018, revealed that 88,692 doctors are registered in their books. Of these doctors, only 45,000 are currently practicing and that gives us a ratio of one doctor to 4000 citizens(1:4000). World Health Organization recommends 1:600 (one doctor for every 600 persons). Nigeria graduates about 2300 doctors every year. Some little math for us: How many more doctors would be required to bridge the gap? How long will it take to produce that number of doctors?
And some more statistics: Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, successfully performed about 20 open and closed heart surgeries in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The University of Nigeria teaching hospital has between 2013 to date carried out over 300 open heart surgeries. The Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas has over 4000 members. About 5000 Nigerian doctors are registered to practice
in the UK.
The above statistics paints the picture that forms the basis for all the hullaballoo about the Nigerian healthcare infrastructure and framework. This conversation is going to be with us for as long as the issues are not fixed, and the reality is that this is highly unlikely to be fixed if we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.
The first thing we need to understand is that the paradigm that government will fix medical care without support from the private sector is in my view a daydream. It is highly unlikely that government will be able to sort out our medical infrastructure to the point where it is first rate. One of the most expensive buildings ever built is the Royal Adelaide Hospital, in Australia. It cost US$2.1 billion apart from the medical equipment which cost $245 million. How was this money raised? It is a public private partnership where government has created the enabling environment for private investment in healthcare. In most countries, both the universities and university hospitals are majorly funded by endowments from the corporates, NGO’s, alumni’s, and individuals. In 2013, the then New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg committed $350 million to Johns Hopkins University. The commitment lifted his lifetime giving to the Baltimore-based University to more than $1 billion, rendering him the most generous living donor to any single educational institution in the U.S. Today, John Hopkins University School of medicine has an endowment of $1.9 billion and John Hopkins University’s current endowment is $3.844 billion. As far back as the 1950’s the University College Ibadan received financial grants into its endowment fund from notable donors like, Nuffield, Ford Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation, United African Company, Cocoa Marketing Board.
The second thing to note is that social spending is more important than medical spending. What do I mean? Medical experts are increasingly coming to the conclusion that improving these “social determinants” often results in better long-term health than does intensive and expensive medical care. Some empirical data to support this: The major OECD countries on average spend about $1.70 on social services for each $1 on health services. But the US spends just 56 cents on social services per $1 health dollar. So, unlike most of the other OECD countries, America spends far less on social services like housing assistance, food aid, and child support than it does on medical services. The stats however show that despite spending by far the largest amount on healthcare, the USA was among the 10 OECD countries (out of 34 countries) with the lowest life expectancy. Research also shows that when you look at different states within America, the states with a higher ratio of social to health spending have significantly better health outcomes in many areas, including adult obesity, diabetes, lung cancer, asthma, and heart disease. Another statistic to buttress this theory is from the G7 group of countries where Japan is No 5 on the ranking for per person spend on healthcare but is No 1 in life expectancy and Italy spends the least per person on health care but is second highest in life expectancy.
The third thing to realize is that the medical services sector is one sector where the talent hunt is fierce. Nigeria has to compete favourably with a view to retaining Nigerian doctors and attracting foreigner doctors. In Nigeria today, an entry level doctor earns an average monthly salary of 250,000 naira ($700 per month). Whilst the average doctor monthly salary of a doctor in the US is $11,000.
How can we get our teaching hospitals run majorly on endowments? Can Nigeria improve its life expectancy by improving socio-economic factors? How can we compete favourably for talented doctors?
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[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”About our Healthcare Conundrum” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:22|text_align:justify|color:%236699cc|line_height:1.8″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]
The health sector in Nigeria is a constant topic and it occurs to you how vulnerable our citizens are each time someone is flown abroad, or someone dies from an otherwise avoidable causes. Let me just throw some random statistic at us. Nigerians spend an estimated US$200million a year on foreign healthcare. Nigeria does have a national health insurance scheme, but less than 7% of the population is covered by it. Indian High Commission in Lagos issues about 40 medical visas per day. Nigeria has 47 federal medical centers and university teaching hospitals to cater for the healthcare needs of its huge population. There are 700 general hospitals, more than 1,700 maternity units and 4,500 health centers. Privately owned profit-seeking, faith-based and voluntary hospitals accounts for at least 40 percent of all facilities in the country. More statistics: The 2017 national budget of N7.298 trillion presented had 4.17 percent allocated to the health sector and World Health Organization’s recommendation is 15 percent of budgetary allocation to health. The data obtained from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria as of May 30, 2018, revealed that 88,692 doctors are registered in their books. Of these doctors, only 45,000 are currently practicing and that gives us a ratio of one doctor to 4000 citizens(1:4000). World Health Organization recommends 1:600 (one doctor for every 600 persons). Nigeria graduates about 2300 doctors every year. Some little math for us: How many more doctors would be required to bridge the gap? How long will it take to produce that number of doctors?
And some more statistics: Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, successfully performed about 20 open and closed heart surgeries in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The University of Nigeria teaching hospital has between 2013 to date carried out over 300 open heart surgeries. The Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas has over 4000 members. About 5000 Nigerian doctors are registered to practice
in the UK.
The above statistics paints the picture that forms the basis for all the hullaballoo about the Nigerian healthcare infrastructure and framework. This conversation is going to be with us for as long as the issues are not fixed, and the reality is that this is highly unlikely to be fixed if we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.
The first thing we need to understand is that the paradigm that government will fix medical care without support from the private sector is in my view a daydream. It is highly unlikely that government will be able to sort out our medical infrastructure to the point where it is first rate. One of the most expensive buildings ever built is the Royal Adelaide Hospital, in Australia. It cost US$2.1 billion apart from the medical equipment which cost $245 million. How was this money raised? It is a public private partnership where government has created the enabling environment for private investment in healthcare. In most countries, both the universities and university hospitals are majorly funded by endowments from the corporates, NGO’s, alumni’s, and individuals. In 2013, the then New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg committed $350 million to Johns Hopkins University. The commitment lifted his lifetime giving to the Baltimore-based University to more than $1 billion, rendering him the most generous living donor to any single educational institution in the U.S. Today, John Hopkins University School of medicine has an endowment of $1.9 billion and John Hopkins University’s current endowment is $3.844 billion. As far back as the 1950’s the University College Ibadan received financial grants into its endowment fund from notable donors like, Nuffield, Ford Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation, United African Company, Cocoa Marketing Board.
The second thing to note is that social spending is more important than medical spending. What do I mean? Medical experts are increasingly coming to the conclusion that improving these “social determinants” often results in better long-term health than does intensive and expensive medical care. Some empirical data to support this: The major OECD countries on average spend about $1.70 on social services for each $1 on health services. But the US spends just 56 cents on social services per $1 health dollar. So, unlike most of the other OECD countries, America spends far less on social services like housing assistance, food aid, and child support than it does on medical services. The stats however show that despite spending by far the largest amount on healthcare, the USA was among the 10 OECD countries (out of 34 countries) with the lowest life expectancy. Research also shows that when you look at different states within America, the states with a higher ratio of social to health spending have significantly better health outcomes in many areas, including adult obesity, diabetes, lung cancer, asthma, and heart disease. Another statistic to buttress this theory is from the G7 group of countries where Japan is No 5 on the ranking for per person spend on healthcare but is No 1 in life expectancy and Italy spends the least per person on health care but is second highest in life expectancy.
The third thing to realize is that the medical services sector is one sector where the talent hunt is fierce. Nigeria has to compete favourably with a view to retaining Nigerian doctors and attracting foreigner doctors. In Nigeria today, an entry level doctor earns an average monthly salary of 250,000 naira ($700 per month). Whilst the average doctor monthly salary of a doctor in the US is $11,000.
How can we get our teaching hospitals run majorly on endowments? Can Nigeria improve its life expectancy by improving socio-economic factors? How can we compete favourably for talented doctors?
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