‘Hospitals need foreign assistance to reduce burden’

Dr Mamman Nasim Sehar, an orthopaedic surgeon at India-based Apollo Hospital, has suggested foreign direct assistance in hospitals to build the capacity of Nigerian health experts and reduce the cost of procedures for which patients travel abroad. He cited an increasing number of elderly Nigerians in need of total knee replacement but unable to get […]

Dr Mamman Nasim Sehar, an orthopaedic surgeon at India-based Apollo Hospital, has suggested foreign direct assistance in hospitals to build the capacity of Nigerian health experts and reduce the cost of procedures for which patients travel abroad.

He cited an increasing number of elderly Nigerians in need of total knee replacement but unable to get the procedure because of cost and the inability of doctors to offer it in Nigerian hospitals. 

Speaking at a workshop for doctors at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Sehar said he personally did at least six total knee replacement procedures for Nigerians who travelled to India.

Sehar said he was "disappointed to note total knee replacement is not a common surgery being done here."

"It is nothing which can’t be done in Abuja or Lagos, it just needs a little push. The patients are plenty in number. Every month quite some patients come from here to get their knees replaced."

The procedure to put in new knee joints is done for patients when walking becomes so painful they can’t lead normal lives, he explained.

But it costs around $8,000 and would be "a lot of burden on the government if they start offering it," he added.

Apollo plans to open a partnership with a Lagos-based hospital to increase its presence in Nigeria beyond routine knowledge transfer visits to Nigerian teaching hospitals whose doctors also understudy experts in India.

"The patients are going to benefit a lot," Sehar explained. "We can come here, do the surgeries, train the local doctors so in the future they do it themselves."

"Partnership has to be in all directions, to grow the medical facility so they can look after themselves."