How Sahad Hospital is carving a niche in healthcare service delivery

Dr Shamsuddeen Aliyu is the Executive Vice Chairman of Sahad Hospital, Abuja. In this interview with Ojoma Akor, he speaks on the cutting edge and affordable services offered by the hospital, how it is helping to check medical tourism as well as the planned commissioning of the hospital by Vice President Kashim Shettima on Saturday. […]

Dr Shamsuddeen Aliyu is the Executive Vice Chairman of Sahad Hospital, Abuja. In this interview with Ojoma Akor, he speaks on the cutting edge and affordable services offered by the hospital, how it is helping to check medical tourism as well as the planned commissioning of the hospital by Vice President Kashim Shettima on Saturday.

Can you briefly tell us more about yourself?

I am a medical practitioner and also an entrepreneur. I did my basic medical education at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. I did my masters’ degree, PhD and other professional certifications in the UK. I did an MBA in Germany and have an honorary PhD in business administration.

What inspired the establishment of Sahad Hospital?

The hospital was single-handedly founded by Alhaji Ibrahim Mijinyawa. He is also the founder of the popular Sahad Stores, with branches across the North: two in Abuja, one in Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and many more coming up.

The founder realised that there was actually a need for him to give back to the community, and he wanted to do it in healthcare. Because of the healthcare situation in Nigeria, many patients travel abroad seeking medical care. So, he felt he should establish, specifically a kidney centre. Sahad hospital was initially called Sahad Kidney Centre. Later, he felt it should be changed to Sahad Hospital so that it can accommodate every other speciality.

• Tinubu will transmit whistleblowing policy to National Assembly soon –Edun
• NAHCON Needs systemic reform – Presidency

What are the specialities and latest medical procedures and technologies provided by the hospital?

We accommodate a wide range of internal medicine sub-specialities. We have consultants in gastroenterology, cardiology, nephrology, neurology and psychiatry. And in terms of surgical procedures, the hospital does general surgeries; Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeries, ophthalmology surgeries, neurosurgeries, as well as orthopaedic surgeries.

In terms of diagnostics, we have CT scan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan and X-ray ultrasound. We hope to expand to fluoroscopy, mammography and other radiological and diagnostic services in the next couple of months.

Also, in terms of laboratory diagnosis, we have a wide range of medical laboratory equipment. We have a fully automated chemistry analyser, fully automated haematology analyser, fully automated immunology machines and other semi-automated machines in chemistry, haematology and microbiology.

In terms of departments, we have paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, dialysis, reproductive health and many more.

Many Nigerians have continued to embark on medical tourism. What are the cutting edge procedures in the hospital that will help check the trend?

The major drivers for medical tourism: quality, care, affordability, availability, and accessibility are the major issues that make people travel. And majority of these cases are heart surgeries, kidney surgeries and other advanced cases such as cancer.

Sahad Hospital is equipped with highly advanced medical equipment. Our MRI scan is 1.5 tesla MRI, and that is what is obtainable in the majority of the hospitals people are going to in India, Egypt and UAE. We have a 64 slice CT scanner and our X-ray is digital. The hospital has seven operating theatres. We also have experts who have done a lot of surgical procedures both at home and abroad.

Aside from these, we have partnerships with foreign doctors that have agreed to come to Nigeria from time to time. We will now have reversed tourism; instead of us going to India, we will have Indian doctors coming to us here in Nigeria. We will actually bring surgeons to come to Sahad Hospital, do surgeries inside the hospital and then go back to India. Right now we have MOUs with over 12 surgeons who have agreed to be coming from time to time from India.

So, this will reduce a lot of costs, because even if the prices Sahad Hospital will charge are the same prices you get in India, travel expenses, visas and accommodation and time waste waiting for visa has been eliminated.

Medical services are usually beyond the reach of many Nigerians, especially as they pay out of pocket. What is the hospital doing to make its services affordable for Nigerians?

All services at Sahad Hospital are subsidised. Why? Because we didn’t draw our costs in isolation. We gathered the costs of procedures from different hospitals across Abuja.

So, I can tell you that our prices are lower than all our counterparts; that is the major private hospitals in Abuja. We look at their prices before we came up with our own prices, and we make sure our prices are much lower than all our counterparts.

Is there any arrangement for free treatment; like for dialysis, with the backdrop of rising kidney cases in the country?

It is our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to help the less privileged based on assessment. We have to do assessment to ensure that those individuals cannot afford care. Because if we are to offer free care, almost everyone wants free care, and we will not be able to operate.

What is the plan of the hospital concerning In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)?

We have a plan to do IVF, our equipment are already on transit to Nigeria and very soon we will start. The hospital is 200-bed capacity, and we have several departments, and some of them are not at this moment ready because starting up a 200-bed capacity needs nothing less than 500 staff. So we have to be opening departments gradually.

As the number of cases increase, we keep increasing the number of staff. As of last month our salaries was N38m and our revenue for that month was not up to N10m. Hopefully, by January, 2025, all the departments will be fully ready because by then we understand the dynamics of the business.

Can you tell us about the commissioning of the hospital on Saturday?

We are commissioning the hospital on Saturday, August 31, and we have the honour of receiving the vice president, Kashim Shettima. Other dignitaries such as the deputy senate president, some state governors, deputy governors, senators, and House of Representatives members have accepted our invitation. So many other important dignitaries around Abuja have also accepted our invitation.