–As FMC Ebute-Metta Commissions New Clinical Complex
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, has expressed the displeasure of the government over scarcity of essential medicines in the country, orchestrated by the exit of some multinational pharmaceuticals, saying that the Federal Government is ready to formulate operational policies to stop the departure of foreign pharma companies from Nigeria.
Dr Alausa, who regretted the pains Nigerians have been subjected to in recent times due to the lacuna in the operations of international drug giants in the Nigerian market, which he described as an oversight of previous administrations, said this government is putting a stop gap to such occurrence by ensuring that multinational pharmaceuticals don’t only market their products, but make significant contribution to local drug production, through the establishment of their manufacturing plant in the country after five years of existence in the industry.
The Minister made this remarks at the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta, on Thursday, where he officially commissioned a new Clinical Building built by the leadership of the Medical Director, Dr Adedamola Dada.
To cushion the effect of existing drug shortage on patients, he assured of the plans of the Federal Government to boost local drug manufacturing by partnering private sector in the development of APIs and the creation of enabling environment to facilitate seamless local medicines supply.
He said “Henceforth, when a company comes in, before giving them operational license, we are going to let them know that they can only market for five years. After five years, they have to manufacture all those drugs in the country.
“We have to make some new government policies, and if the president has to sign an executive order, trust me on this, he will do that. So we just don't want to approach this peripherally. We need to do a grand solution to this”.
He continued “The problem we've had is that we've allowed these foreign pharmaceutical companies come into our country without signing appropriate agreement with them. They just come into the country and do things differently.
“It is unfortunate that we have allowed this multinationals to have freeway into the country and 20 years after, 30 years after, they're still marketing. They have not contributed to the development of the country. That's the problem. We're going to be busy to change that”.
Recalled that some pharmaceutical giants link GSK and Sanofi Aventis, with unnamed others, indicated their intention to exit Nigeria, due to what they portrayed as unfavourable economic conditions.
The Health Minister appealed to Nigerians to bear with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at this tough time, as he is doing everything possible at his disposal to resolve issues around healthcare inaccessibility, with the vision to have a country with a sustainable, doable, and comprehensive healthcare system. He mentioned ongoing plans to double healthcare force, through the increase of students’ admission in the college of Medicines, school of Nursing, faculty of Pharmacy, lab technicians and others.
Dr Alausa also commended the MD of FMC, Ebute-Metta, Dr Dada for his visionary leadership in conceiving the dream of the Clinical Building and actualizing it to the commissioning. He described the FMC Ebute- Metta as one of the hospitals in the country, which favourably competes with any hospital in the world, being a public hospital. He seized the avenue to encourage other leaders of public hospitals at the occasion to scale up their operations to international standard, adding that if FMC, Ebute -Metta can get it right, then others can do it.
“Beyond being a public hospital, they’re providing care in different medical specialties. They're bringing care closer to our people, and these are good developments. They are offering quality and sustainable care. We however need to let our people know that these quality care are being subsidize by government to make healthcare accessible to the citizens”, he disclosed.
Fielding questions from journalists at the event, Dr Dada explained the rationale behind the construction of the Clinical Building, which houses an ophthalmology centre, IVF clinic, cardiology lab, 50-bedded new admission facility for both male and female, among others. He said the progressive increase in number of ophthalmology patients and the need to create more bed spaces for patients propelled the leadership of the hospital to erect the Clinical Building.
He explained further that the need to cater for a large number of patients in need of IVF services, in addition to high cost of the service in private facilities also motivated them to create the centre, as a means of financial relief to patients.
The Ebute-Meta Medical Director, admitted that irrespective of the brain drain in the sector, the health institution is engaging the services of active retired medical personnel and nurses to fill in the gap.
According to him “The reason why we have created a new ophthalmology center is because we have realised that there has been a progressive increase in the number of ophthalmology patients that we have seen. And that ophthalmology centre actually has two theatres and four consulting rooms. So we're going to be able to see more patients and more patients will be able to have their surgeries from it.
“On the other side of it is the IVF. We all know about IVF. We all know how expensive it is.
“But because we're a public institution and we have a very large volume of patients and quite a large number of patients who actually need the service, we have been able to do our calculations.
“We are very confident that we're going to be able to crash the cost of IVF for Nigerians once we start working.
“On the second floor is a 50-bedded new admission facility, which is made up of both male and female. Generally. We have private wards, okay? That will increase the number of beds that we have in our hospitals substantially. And quite a number of patients who are now in poor models will be told that there is no admission facility.
“We now have admission facility. And then of course on the third floor, we have a clinic, right. And then we're going to have a cardiology lab, which would make it easier for Nigerians to actually be able to do their cardiology, bring the status and be able to see a proper specialist promptly.
“So it's certainly a building that has a lot of functions and a building that many of us would like to build”, he stated.
