Eromosele Ebhomele.

The Special Advisor for Africa, International Hospital Federation, IHF, Geneva, an affiliate of the World Health Organisation, WHO, Dr. Leke Pitan, has offered a two-pronged panacea for the survival of healthcare delivery system in the country in the face of the daunting financial constraints.

According to the Heath Infrastructural Technocrat, as a first measure the health equipment manufacturers should consider more, the option of equipment leasing to health care providers, in order to get around the financial strap being faced by the providers.

According to a press statement signed by the media office to Pitan and made available to newsmen in Lagos on Thursday, the second panacea, according to him, was for the banks to fund the acquisition directly, under a leasing arrangement.

The two options, according to him, would however see off the profiteering domination of vendors and middlemen. He said by boycotting the vendors and taking them directly to the end users, more hospitals would have access to modern and standard equipment that are lacking in their hospitals. By doing this, he expressed the opinion that so many costs would have been reduced.

Dr. Pitan, a former Commissioner for Health in Lagos State, was speaking as the Chairman of the Healthcare Financing  of Nigeria (HFN) organised by the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN)at the Eko Hotels and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos. He suggested a situation where middlemen and vendors would be cut off the transactions between health equipment manufacturers and the healthcare providers in the country. He said this is possible as he achieved good success employing such strategy in the past as Commissioner for Health in Lagos State.

He told the gathering, which included health facility owners, representatives of banks, lawyers and the public that when he came on board as Commissioner in the Ministry of Health in Lagos State, the General Hospitals were seriously in distress.

He recalled that the mindset of the civil servants that all properties inside the government offices must belong to the government was first addressed. He then brought in private partners into the system. The blood bank and mortuary system are few of the beneficiaries of that partnership.