Indians pledge to build world-class hospitals in Nigeria

By AZOMA CHIKWE

Nigerians seeking Medicare abroad would spend 80 per cent less for better treatment in India compared to Europe. This was disclosed recently by an Indian cardiologist, Dr. Naresh Trehan, during a media chat at the West African Health Sixth International Medical Exhibition and Conference at the Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos.

Trehan, chairman and chief executive of the multi-specialty Medanta Hospital- Medicity in New Delhi, India, said India offered more medicare advantage to Nigerians, a situation which explains the increasing number of patients from Nigeria seeking medical attention in that country.

“The advantage we provide from the healthcare that has been developed through us is that we can provide treatment for ailments like heart, kidney, liver and cancer at a much higher level of success and the cost is very affordable. People do not have to spend large sum of money, going to other countries. We can do a much better job at a much less price - one fifth of the cost,” he said.

According to him, the monthly health distribution of patients that visit Medanta Hospital from different parts of the world shows that between 40 and 50 are from Nigeria.

Dr. Trehan spoke of plans to have bilateral exchanges with Nigerian hospitals and medical institutions on various areas as a first step to building a multi-specialty hospital in Nigeria in the next two years.
“What we would like to do is to develop some combined programme where we can have bilateral exchange of doctors, scientists and if there are gaps, we try to develop those specialties in Nigeria so that the people of Nigeria can progressively access the best care in Nigeria.

“We have some expertise in public-private partnership (PPP) dormain and we are now talking about sharing some experiences of PPP and doing things together. So, hopefully, in the next two to five years, we will have a hospital present here and we are talking to the government for the PPP model,” he said.

Trehan, while decrying the high rate of child and maternal mortality due to basic lack of knowledge, ideas and facilities at the level where they are needed, hinted that Medanta was willing to provide education and training in medicare.
Medanta is a conglomeration of multi-super specialty institutes, led by exceptional medical practitioners from all over the world, who are leaders in their respective fields. Medanta, also called Medicity, is spread across 43 acres. It has 45 operating theatres, 1,250 beds, and over 350 critical care beds. It offers widest spectrum of clinical care, education and research.
The hospital also has nine specialist medical institutes, covering heart, neurosciences, bone and joint, kidney & urology, cancer, critical care and anaesthesiology, digestive & hepatobiliary services, minimally invasive surgery as well as transplant and regenerative medicine.

The hospital seeks to participate in the public private partnership in healthcare articulated as the theme of the conference, Trehan stated. It already has a training programme in conjunction with the government of Kenya.

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