Abia leveraging on digital technology to expand healthcare

From Okey Sampson, Umuahia

Abia State Government said it is leveraging on digital technology to expand care to people in all parts of the state, irrespective of where they live or their level of income through Telemedicine Digital Health Transformation.

The State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Enoch Ogbonnaya-Uche disclosed this during a fact finding visit to two Primary Health Centres in Umudike in Ikwuano Local Government Area and Umuenyere Alayi in Bende Local Government Area.

He contended that telemedicine was intended to achieve universal health coverage by extending healthcare to people to meet their health need wherever they are.

“Making healthcare accessible, affordable, and with financial protection is what this government tends to achieve with telemedicine. So what digital health transformation is doing is to expand healthcare.

“Doctors are not around, so many of them are dead. So when a doctor can stay in a room, in a bar, and treat a patient in the clinic, the idea is to improve efficiency, expand the delivery of high quality healthcare service to people that are in remote locations.

“Not only that, apart from increasing efficiency, it’s going to reduce cost. Because when a doctor has to travel from place to place, you know it’s very, very difficult and very costly. But he can stay where he is and still do the work at a reduced cost on the patient”.

Abia-born investigative Journalist Chinemenma Umeseaka, who was part of the visiting team, commended the Abia State Governor Alex Otti for taking the lead in Universal Health Coverage through the recently introduced Telemedicine Digital Health Transformation in the state.

She disclosed that the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030 is a central target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3.8), aiming to ensure that all people can now have access to quality, essential health services, including: prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care, without suffering financial hardship.

She regretted that while UHC 2030 is a universally agreed-upon goal, current progress reports show that the world is off track with meeting the target by 2030 in many African countries because of dearth of doctors.

She commended Abia State for becoming the first State in Africa to show that UHC is possible with a living proof with the introduction of Digital Health Transformation, which allows doctors to attend to patients from across the world with the use of digital technology.

“Umuenyere is one peculiar centre. It had no electricity supply for 5 years. Very poor or no internet access, yet Governor Otti broke this impossible barrier.
That was the reason for this visit to confirm how true such can be.

“Everyone in these two villages now have cards they scan to climb the machine for vitals and their BP, Pulse oxygen level and temperature will go straight for the doctor to see. No mistake, no error”, she said.

The Health Authority Secretary in Ikwuano Local Government Area, Dr (Mrs) Nwachukwu Judith Catherine, commended the governor for the introduction of telemedicine.

She pointed out the policy has brought a very developed system of healthcare delivery to Abia residents.