The Chief Medical Director of NAUTH, Prof Ugboaja arrives China for a Strategic meeting

On Monday, 23rd September 2024, the Chief Medical Director of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Professor Joseph Ugboaja OON, left Nigeria for China. Prof Ugboaja was in the company of three Chief Executive Officers/CMDs of other federal tertiary hospital for strategic engagements with the Chinese Government officials, Medical equipment manufacturers, Hospital administrators, and members of the organized private sector, on how to take the Nigerian health institutions to the next level.
A group of Chinese medical equipment manufacturing companies led by Ecomed LTD are the sponsors of the 10-day visit which will last from 23rd September to 2nd October 2024. The CMD of NAUTH is slated to return to Nigeria on the 3rd of October 2024.

Schedule and Activities

During the visit, the CMD will hold strategic meetings on how the Chinese government and companies will assist the hospital to commence some of the prioritized subspecialty practices, including Renal transplant, Oncology services, IVF services, Interventional Cardiology, including Open Heart surgery, as well as Advanced Minimal Access surgery.

Professor Ugboaja will also visit the top-ranking Chinese hospitals and medical equipment manufacturers to further seek areas of collaboration. He will specifically explore opportunities for in-house production of the common medical consumables at the permanent site, such as gloves, gauze, cotton wool, syringes, plasters, etc., to reduce the cost of care. During the tour, Professor Ugboaja will visit Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Tianjin to ensure that he accomplished the purposes of his visit.

The significance of the visit

Speaking to newsmen on arrival in China, the CMD, who was recently honoured by the AfriHealth consortium with the CMD of the year award explained that strategic partnerships with key players in the health sector was at the center of the hospital’s strategies towards achieving vision 2030 as encapsulated in the hospital’s 10-year Strategic and Development plan. He mentioned that the hospital has continuously leveraged on partnerships and relationships with key government agencies to build and equip the Permanent site. Some of these agencies include the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural gas company, the NNPC, National Assembly, etc.

According to the CMD, the partnership with the Chinese government and companies is expected to open new windows of development for the hospital while noting that China undoubtedly has become a leading country in the manufacturing and distribution of medical equipment, consumables, and related commodities.

Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain in Nigeria and aligning with the NHSRII

The CMD explained that in a bid to reduce capital flight and bring down the cost of Healthcare services in Nigeria, the Honourable Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate CON has launched the Unlocking the Nigerian Healtcare Value chain initiative to encourage local production of Healthcare commodities. The idea is to reduce the importation of medical commodities into the country. The CMD explained that his intention and effort at patnering with the equipment and consumable manufacturing companies was to produce the basic commodities at the permanent site of the hospital. The program aligns with this very important strategic pillar of the Nigeria Health System Renewal & Investmant initiative of the present Federal Government. The policy will not only reduce drastically the cost of care for the patients, but will also gurantee the quality of the consumables.
Prof Ugboaja appreciates the Honourable Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate CON for championing this initiative and emphasized the need for all the Health Institutions in the country to align their strategies and activities with the Nigeria Health System Renewal & Investment initiative for uniformity of purposes in order to fasttrack the achievement of Mr President’s agenda of quality healthcare for all Nigerians.

Prof Ugboaja further appreciates the President of the country, Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCON for all he is doing to reposition the country especially the Health sector and the Honourable Cordinating Minister of Health & Social Welfare for pioneering an unprecedented move towards revamping the health sector and for all the support he has been giving to NAUTH and for granting him the permission to undertake this particular trip.

The CMD looks forward to a fruitful engagement in China as he keeps pushing the frontiers of development of the Permanent site.

It is fitting that the best CMD award was bestowed on Professor Ugboaja just few days ago and he was already in China working assidiously to take NAUTH to a greater height in pursuit of achieving medical excellence at the permanent site. The publisher of Vision Newspapers wishes Professor Ugboaja a successful outing in China.