Abia: Government Partners Foundation to Boost Healthcare Delivery, Trains Personnel

As part of the efforts to reposition and redefine health care delivery, the Abia State government in partnership with Quntus Medical Mission Foundation — a US based Nigeria focused medical outreach, has commenced training of health personnel in the state.

Speaking to journalists in Umuahia on Thursday during the training session, the founder and CEO of Quntus Medical Foundation, Dr Nnenna Ihekoromadu decried the poor patient-personnel relationship in the country, saying the aim of the partnership is to change the narrative in order to boost public confidence in the system.

According to her the training which will be carried in phases began with Patient Liaison Officers (PLOs), who would be the pilot officers and in turn train others.

Dr Ihekoromadu said for the pilot officers, the two week programmes aimed to train six PLOs per hospital, beginning with public hospitals in the state.

“This foundation is U.S.-based, Nigeria focused. Our focus is to ensure that the healthcare delivery system in Nigeria is optimal. So, we’re here to redefine the healthcare systems by bringing culture change to the hospitals. We started with change management leadership forums and then we put in patient liaison officers and by doing that we’ve seen a lot of changes”.

“So, Quontus Medical Foundation is in Abia now in collaboration with the Ministry of Health as a partnership to change the healthcare culture in Abia. So, we’re doing this through the Abia Healthcare Rebirth Initiative, AHCRI”.

“We’re focusing on the people that deliver health because historically when you talk about healthcare in Nigeria people are focused on the buildings and equipment and the people that actually deliver the care somehow are ignored”.

So, Quntus Medical Foundation is focused on the people. We train, we empower, we encourage and we just don’t do it by teaching and talking. We bring the people that actually do the same thing we are preaching. They are the patient liaison officers”.

Dr Ihekoromadu said the training is focused on four cardinal points, with the acronym, CARE, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence.

“We’re teaching them how to, number one, show compassionate care, care from the heart. If the patients feel loved, feel cared for, the healing already starts even before medications are given”.

“So, we’re teaching them, number two, how to be accountable. Accountability is the second part of what we do. Compassion is the first. Accountability is the second. What does that mean? It’s being able to hold any nurse or doctor or porter or cleaner or lab technician, technician, or pharmacist accountable”.

“Something is going well, going well, they get a reward. Things are not going right, they’re held accountable and they do this by every single shift. They observe, they intervene and then they record. If there’s a problem, they escalate the problem all the way to the CMD and if he has to make it to the honorable commissioner for health, he will get to the honorable commissioner for health and that’s because we’ve put together a system that allows that to happen”.

“The next is respect. Patients need dignity, patients need respect and we teach the patient liaison officers to first respect themselves, respect their colleagues, the staff, hospital staff and most importantly the patients and their families. Nigeria is not structured the way I’m describing but we are teaching the structure now because everyone needs to feel cared for, everyone needs to feel loved”.

“Then the last part is excellence.We think excellence is a given and Abia deserves it. Abia is all about excellence and his excellency is really passionate about this program and wants every hospital in Abia to embrace the AHCRI initiative and bring compassionate care, accountability, respect and excellence”.

“So the training I keep talking about, it’s not just about compassionate care, accountability, respect and excellence.It’s clinical training, but it’s also training on what the law is. The law has to protect the doctors’ analysis as well as the patients”.

“So if a patient cannot afford care and they’ve come in in an emergency situation, they will have to be treated. They stabilize them, treat them before you start asking about payments. So we’re making sure every staff member knows that. Now, in other cases, like cosmetic surgery or anything, part of what we’re doing is we’re now in collaboration with all the medical missions, all the organizations that come and provide free medical care”.

“So now, when a patient cannot afford certain care, as long as it’s not an emergency, we can then connect the patients with free medical care through the mission. So yes, this is all about the patients and the staff. This is a people program, not a building program”.

According to her, in a bid to ensure sustainability, the Quntus Medical Foundation has Quntus Medical Foundation Next Gen, next generation.

“So we have developed the Quntus Medical Foundation Next Gen USA, which is a younger group of professionals. Some of them are going into med school. I know, or some of them are already in med school. They are interested in this work. A lot of Caucasians, white people, are interested in the work we’re doing in Africa”.

“The idea is for them to continue the work and spread”.

On her part, a member of the Quntus Medical Foundation Next Gen USA, Nikki Olaleye has this to say, “I am part of the next gen USA team. I am based in Dallas, Texas as well. I graduated from the University of San Francisco in 2023. And I’m getting ready to go to law school in the U.S. But I wanted to use this time between going to law school to give back to the community. And I’m part of a small selective team of college graduates and college students who are working with the Quntus Medical Foundation to try and expand the healthcare system in Nigeria. So we’re involved with a lot of the coordination and mostly administrative tasks. So we help out with social media.We help out with different types of coordination tasks”.

“I do know that in the diaspora, we never lose sight of our true cause. My heart will always be here in Nigeria. And even though I am based in the U.S. and I plan to live there for a while, I will always, always have care for the community here in Nigeria”.

Contributing, the Chief medical director of Abia State University Teaching Hospital, ABSUTH, Aba, Prof Ijeoma Nduka, commended Quntus Medical Foundation for the initiative describing it as a “laudable project”.

Nikki Olaleye

Prof Ijeoma Nduka

“This is a very laudable project initiated by Quntus and supported by our health friendly governor, His Excellency Dr. Choma Alex Otti. And we have come to collaborate with our own people, Nigerians in the diaspora. And it’s encouraging”.

“And this project is all about cultural change.What is it that we’re doing here that we need to do better? So the team has come to work with us in Abia State”.

“They’re going to deploy the patient liaison officers to various hospitals. Now, ABSUTH, Abia specialist and then the general hospital, and they’re going to work with our team to ensure it’s all about this patient-centered.”

“So they are here to ensure all our patients get the highest form of service that we should be known for, and we are known for. So they are more like a light zone in between the patient and the service.”

“So we wholeheartedly accept it, because we know that this project has come to stay and we are learning and we will learn from then. I believe that with time, we will have, or stand alone. We would have sucked everything they have brought in from the U.S, which will help us serve our patients, effectively deliver quality of care to the patients, to Abians, and Nigeria in general. So we wholeheartedly accept it and we thank Dr. Nnenna”.