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The Nigeria Communications Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT) this week in Abuja launched the NigcomHealth, a digital healthcare service allowing millions of Nigerians easy access to medical practitioners for their health needs.
Designed by the federal government communication satellite to reduce medical tourism by Nigerians, the new platform will save the country between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion spent annually on outbound medical tourism.
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Developed in partnership with Canadian based Ethnomet and Sawtrax, the new window will expand health access tremendously at reduced cost to millions of Nigerians beginning with government workers and their family members.
The huge annual loss will soon be a thing of the past as Nigerians, irrespective of their locations, will be able to enjoy the benefits of NigcomHealth, said Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami at the launch.
“As we are all aware, compared to other developed nations, our healthcare system is still underdeveloped in terms of telemedicine, outreach, and accessibility to quality healthcare services for the vast number of our communities, especially those residing in rural and remote areas. To bridge this gap, there is an urgent need to leverage disruptive technology to improve access to healthcare services and the availability of quality medical practitioners within Nigeria and across the globe. Therefore, the NigComHealth Platform is a timely solution that could ensure the availability of quality healthcare services to all Nigerians, irrespective of their locations,” he said.
According to Pantami, the platform is a telehealth service allowing Nigerians to book appointments, receive medical advice or recommendation and consult with physicians and other healthcare practitioners from any location across Nigeria. This saves them need for physical hospital visits, reduce overall cost of accessing immediate medical care and services.
All government hospitals are expected to plug their healthcare professionals into the NigComHealth multitenant digital healthcare service platform to offer health services digitally to about 1.7 million government employees and their families nationwide as the platform goes into operation.
“[Compared] to other developed nations, our healthcare system is still underdeveloped in terms of telemedicine, outreach and accessibility to quality healthcare services by the vast number of our communities, especially those residents in rural and remote areas. To bridge the gap, there is urgent need to leverage the disruptive technology to improve access to healthcare services and quality medical practitioners available within Nigeria and across the globe,” added Pantami who was represented by chief of staff, Prof. Sahalu Junaidu.
The platform will help to close the worrisome wide doctor-patient gap, the minister said. According to the “Nigerian Medical Association … the doctor-patient ratio in the country is getting worse, with a physician attending to more than 5,000 patients. This represents a stark contrast with WHO’s recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients. With 218 million people to cater to, Nigeria requires at least 363,000 additional doctors to meet this target,” the minister quoted.
According to Managing Director, NIGCOMSAT, Tukur Lawal, the platform ends the need for foreign medical trips and brings medical personnel closer home to those in need of such services whether in urban or rural areas.
Present at the launch was the Canadian High Commissioner, Mr. James Christoff. He described the project as a commendable effort at advancing the benefit of collaboration between Canada and the country to the Nigerian people. CEO of Ethnomet, Ms. Garnette Weber, who addressed the audience virtually, described the initiative as timely to bring technology and innovation to bear on improving healthcare services.
“Today’s launch signifies a collective effort among various stakeholders connected through Ethnomet technology to bring high-quality and accessible healthcare to the people of Nigeria,” said Weber.
Also present were Former MD of Galaxy Backbone and Chairman of NIGCOMSAT, Yusuf Kazaure; Former MD of NIGCOMSAT, Ahmed Rufai; National Commissioner/CEO, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB), Dr Vincent Olatunji; Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi; and Director General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar Aziz; amongst others
