|
Ikoyi, VI have world’s highesthospital density – Kuku
Olamilekan Lartey, Ikoyi
Ikoyi and Victoria Island in Lagos have the highest hospital density in the world.
One of the founders of the EKO Hospital Group, Chief Sonny Kuku, said the concentration of high quality medical facilities in both sections of Lagos was an indication of the development in the nation’s health sector.
Speaking with our correspondent in an interview in Warri on Thursday, Kuku said the high hospital density in Ikoyi and Victoria Island was an indication of the financial implication of quality health care delivery.
He said, “If you look around now, every other street has a hospital because of the belief that people can pay.”
He noted, however, that health care delivery in the country was better than what it was at independence.
Kuku lamented, however, that the problem confronting the nation’s medicare was how to provide and maintain the required facilities.
This, he noted, demanded a new health policy, which would include an insurance scheme that would guarantee access to high quality medicare for all Nigerians
He said, “Where the doctors will practise and how they practise and what they will use is the problem we have now. The only way we can deal with it is to encourage the private sector and to encourage third-party payment like the health insurance scheme.”
Kuku noted that there might be hiccups at the beginning, adding that it was the only solution to the nation’s health problems.
He argued that it was the politicians who spread the idea of free health programmes without making adequate provisions in the budget for the service.
According to him, the good healthcare system that people talked about in Europe and America was based on the existence of an efficient and coordinated insurance system for people to use and the adequate funding of hospitals and welfare of doctors from the pool of funds.
He said if the government was going to spend taxpayers’ money to provide quality healthcare service for the people, then “it must put a large proportion of the taxpayers’ money into the health sector like it happens in England.”
Kuku said, “In the United Kingdom, there is the national health system and a certain percentage of the budget automatically goes into that system. There is no need to go to parliament asking it to approve any budget for it. I don’t know whether it is 10 or 15 per cent, but a percentage of the government’s income goes directly into the health service.”
Kuku noted that it would be difficult for anyone to go into or replicate the concept of the EKO Hospital because of the huge capital outlay and the dedication of the owners.
“We were able to raise the money by going public. Not from loans or anything. Most of it came from equity.
“The health sector is not as lucrative as the banking sector. If we went out now to look for N2billion, it may be difficult for us to get, but the banks, because they have better yields, can get that kind of money,” he said.
THE PUNCH, Friday, August 12, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
advertisement
advertisement
