‘Why we are partnering Al-Basar Foundation on eye care’

Your office recently signed an MOU with the proprietors of Makkah eye clinic, what was the partnership all about?The Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Private Health Institutions Unit, the Primary Healthcare Management Board and the Al-Basar Foundation called Makkah Specialist Eye Hospital was aimed at reducing overcrowding of our hospitals environments within the city […]

Your office recently signed an MOU with the proprietors of Makkah eye clinic, what was the partnership all about?
The Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Private Health Institutions Unit, the Primary Healthcare Management Board and the Al-Basar Foundation called Makkah Specialist Eye Hospital was aimed at reducing overcrowding of our hospitals environments within the city metropolitan area in cases related to eye problems.
You know the global vision of 2020 aims  at reducing preventable blindness all over the world and Africa shares in the burden of all these preventable blindness. The eye centres we have are not adequate to cater for cases of blindness that Kano is known for.
Cases of blindness include cataract and glaucoma which are so predominant in the northern part of Nigeria and in Africa in general. We have realised that accessing care is becoming more difficult for the people,  so based on that we decided to come up with a new initiative; that is to engage a private health institution operating in the state using its corporate social responsibilities.
Depending on their strength we encourage them to render some services that will be beneficial to local communities. So when we looked at the eye problems in Kano, we decided to approach Al-Basar Foundation which is an international non-governmental and non-profitable organisation that has been rendering eye services in Kano for many years.
We asked them to partner with the Kano State government to reduce congestion by opening eye centres in our local government areas.
What are the terms of reference for the MOU with the private institutions?
The term of operation is that the primary health care will provide the facilities such as a consulting room, a minor operating theatre and an area where drugs can be dispensed. Al-Basar Foundation on its part will provide three months’ training for the staff manning the facilities and will also provide basic diagnostic tools.
They will also ensure that an effective referral system is developed between it and the selected facilities and will also conduct periodic outreach services which will be a one-day programme where patients will be screened and required treatments including surgery will be given to those that need it.
Our own unit will conduct oversight function to make sure both organs keep to the agreement.
Where are the selected facilities located?
So far about six facilities have been selected for the partnership and they include Tofa community eye clinic in Tofa Local Government, Kibiya health centre in Kibiya Local Government, a health facility in Kura Local Government Area, the primary health centre in Gwarzo, Warawa and Sumaila local government areas.
The selection was based on some peculiarities of those areas.
When is the programme starting?
Since we have already signed the agreement, the partnership is commencing next week when the tools will be given to these centres. The names of the staff to be trained will be received. So hopefully we are starting before the end of this administration.
What is the duration of the partnership?
The programme will be reviewed after the completion of three years and thereafter any problems encountered will be addressed and if the parties wish to continue with it, it will be extended.
In what way do you think this partnership will help in addressing eye problems in the state?
The people that will be trained in the local communities are there to screen the patient’s eyes from the early stages of the diseases so that people will not wait until when it has reached its advanced stages before coming for treatment.
In addition, the people in that local community will be taught about health education, they will be told about preventable aspect of the diseases and other personal hygiene that will guard against such diseases.
This is at the local level, at the state level, referral cases will be treated immediately to prevent patients from becoming blind.