The Medical Director of Alliance Hospital, Dr. Chris Otabor, has vowed that his hospital will do everything possible to drastically reduce infant and maternal mortality rate in Nigeria.
He disclosed this at the formal unveiling of a world-class Paediatrics Centre in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The facility is said to gulp over $400,000.
Nigeria currently has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world with 70 deaths per 1000 live births.
Speaking while unveiling the hospital, Dr. Otabor said that the new world-class Paediatrics Centre will bring an end the era of infants, maternal deaths in Nigeria.
While lamenting that the current number of paediatric centres in the country are insufficient and ill-equipped, he appealed to both the governments at all levels and the private sector to establish “special centres of this nature across Nigeria because what we have presently is not enough.”
According to him: “For me, it is sad that we are always talking about problems without advancing solutions even when we are contending with a big problem in the health sector.
“So, in essence, we have identified a gap, and with this, we would be able to save many children and mothers as well.
“In the past, other partners have called to request for a ventilator and incubator or trying to know whether I have space at my neonatal intensive care unit, and I said no. Only God knows what would have happened to those children. With this, we are giving children an opportunity to live, and with this new facility, relief is here.”
The Alliance Hospital MD, therefore, charged medical doctors and private investors in Nigeria to emulate India, where, according to him, many private hospitals and centres owned by private investors are leading the healthcare sector.
While calling on the federal and states governments to put structures and provide a conducive working environment to de-escalate brain drains and medical tourism in the country, he disclosed that: “Last year, we had over 60,000 patients within and outside Nigeria. So, we are not only keeping our foreign exchange here as it were, we are also getting foreign exchange.”
Earlier, the Special Guest of Honour, the Deputy Governor of Gombe State, Dr Manasseh Daniel Jatau, commended the Alliance Hospital for its numerous medical aids, intervention and feats recorded so far in the field of medicine.
“Health is too important to be left in the hands of medical personnel and the government alone.
“Stakeholders in the health sector including pharmaceuticals should harmonize ideas and take advantage of our numerous and abundant nature and local resources by coming up with research that would birth medicines and medical materials” the Deputy Governor, said.
