Nigerians in Diaspora volunteer to boost tertiary healthcare

NAMFI opens office in Lagos A GROUP of Nigerian medical specialists in the United States (U.S.) is embarking on voluntary medical services to address gaps in tertiary care services in the country. Efforts by the group, under the aegis of Nigeria American Medical Foundation International (NAMFI), will address overseas medical trips and reverse brain drain “through the immense human capital and brainpower of Nigerian super-specialists in the American Diaspora.” Secretary to NAMFI Board of Trustees in Lagos, Dr. Adeyinka Shoroye said that the initiative was born out of the discovery that the biggest challenge to tertiary care in Nigeria was more of the dearth of medical experts than infrastructure. Meanwhile, there are currently about 4,000 Nigerian specialists in the U.S., about a third of whom are sub-specialty trained in about 80 sub-specialties from American Medical Association (AMA) database. “But with deficiencies in key sub-specialties in Nigeria, sick Nigerians now travel daily to the Apollo and Care Hospitals in India seeking second-opinions, highly specialised care,” Shoroye said. He said that it is worrisome that an Indian private diagnostic facility in Lagos alone weekly refers 20 patients to India for oncology diagnosis and treatment. And on daily flights from Lagos, about 40 patients are said to be India-bound patients for cardiac and renal conditions. While the rich and top government officials travel on medical tourism to Europe, North America, Dubai and South Africa, the middle class Nigerians travel to India, the poor and government-sponsored go to Egypt. “Data from the Central Bank reveals that $2.5 billion is spent by rich Nigerians on medical treatment abroad annually. It is also estimated that about the same figure is remitted home yearly from Nigerians in Diaspora for the cost of treatment of relatives! “Is this 21st century trade by barter? This is a big capital flight our human capital abroad can reverse. This cannot continue. Import our ‘finished products,” he said. To bridge the gap, NAMFI recently set up an office in Ikoyi, Lagos, with the mission “to fill the present huge gap in tertiary care in Nigeria with the immense human capital and brainpower of Nigerian super-specialists in the American Diaspora.” Shoroye, who is an attending physician at Oasis American Hospital, Abu Dhabi, said Nigeria’s luxury of expertise and experienced medical hands in America would be rotating voluntarily, year-round (by appointments only) to give tertiary care services in Nigeria. “We should remember that this is the generation that first put Nigeria on the global stage of excellence in medicine. We have a huge opportunity of human capital in history now to make a difference. They are bringing the flavour of experience with huge talent of those rotating from the U.S.” NAMFI is incorporated as a non-profit organisation in California and later in Nigeria, with Lagos office at Mulliner Towers, No. 39, Kingsway Road, Suite 113, Ikoyi. Their web address is www.namfi.org and has 01-215-0000 as phone number. Shoroye said further that the group had already partnered with about two well-equipped hospitals within 15 minutes distance to the office suites for admitting privileges/procedures. “We have office practices akin to faculty practice offices across America in tertiary care centres. We also have in our Ikoyi office suite telemedicine’s latest technology with Nigeria’s new satellite-NIGCOMSAT and also broadband. “Telemedicine facilities will be available for tele-consultation, tele-education and distance learning, as we develop a ‘central clearing house’ for Nigeria tertiary care consultative service for diagnostic challenges with Cleveland e-clinic for Nigerian patients. “We have made some strides in transferring large bandwidth of digital radiologic and pathologic images between Lagos/Abuja and North America overseas experts. This is our modest beginning. We have few highly experienced physicians living in Nigeria who will serve as ‘in-house’ experts and add value,” he said. The effort has been made possible with support of some donors in U.S. and also in Nigeria (all for non-profit status), coupled with transparency policy of trustees’ board management. http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97109:nigerians-in-diaspora-volunteer-to-boost-tertiary-healthcare&catid=93:science&Itemid=608