Stakeholders Advocate More Collaborations To Boost Healthcare Services

 

Stakeholders in the health sector have identified the need for more collaborations to provide prompt healthcare services.

They said collaborations would boost the health sector and improve the services provided by the health care managers across hospitals in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer, Sunu Health Nigeria limited, Dr. Patrick Korie and other stakeholders made the statement at the maiden after Covid-19 edition of its health care providers Forum held in Lagos South west Nigeria.

The Forum has its theme: “ Business of health care: Collaboration to build better health care system.

Dr. Patrick Korie described the maiden health forum after Covid-19 edition as vital.

“This event is very important because when you are in the business of service, once in a while you have to meet those who you serve and listen to them, to know what they expect from us. And then we also have to tell them what we expect from them,” Dr. Korie said.

He said the aim of the forum and interactive section is to create an understanding among the enrollees, service providers and the regulators.

Dr Korie said; “We want to deepen the level of care our employees receive. We also want to deepen the level of satisfaction of our providers.”

Speaking further on a major challenge faced by enrollees, Dr Korie identified such as waiting for prompt response, and that the issue is almost resolved.

“Yes, waiting time is a problem. It has always been a problem. When waiting time to assess care increases, the rate of compliance of the patients will also decrease.”

He disclosed that Sunu Health Nigeria has placed some measures to tackle the waiting time by a client.

“On our own side, we have a call center that has been automated, and the reason for automation is to remove human interference. So, with that automation, we believe that those seeking codes, will have codes within 5 to 10 minutes of their request. We also increased our channels,” Dr. Korie said.

He said; “You can request for codes through SMS, through phone, through WhatsApp, through email, or even through all other channels we have made known to our employees.

“Another thing that increases waiting time is the number of people you meet in the hospital. For instance, when you go to a public hospital, there are hundreds of people. You are not going to leave those people and start attending to a person because the person is coming from an HMO”.

“In a situation where there are so many people in the hospital and no replacement, why wouldn’t there be long waiting times? So, all these factors, the way we can address them using technology and augmentation, we address them,” Dr. Korie added.

Similarly, one of the clients at the event from Flour Mills Employee Wellness Manager, Mrs Patience Odiase noted that one problem faced by the providers is that they are not quick to respond.

She said; “I want to believe the providers have listened, and they have heard and they will improve on responsiveness, which is very key.

“These are sick patients, they want to get attention, they want to go back to work, even if they are going home to rest, they wouldn’t want to spend the whole day at the health care center.”

Mrs Odiase said that clients from Health Maintenance Organisation HMO, should be given equal attention.

She said; “Because most times when they see, oh, it’s a HMO client, there’s this attitude from providers,which has been addressed and I want to believe that if they comply and treat clients well, they would get more employees.

“When you treat people as humans that they are, they will want to come back,” she pointed out.”

SUNU Health Nigeria, is a technology-driven and customer-focused Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) accredited by the National Health Insurance Authority, NHIA, in Nigeria.

Health Maintenance Organisation accredited by the National Health Insurance Authority, NHIA, in Nigeria serves as the middle man between the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and health care providers both in the public and private sectors.

 

 

Mercy Chukwudiebere