By Sunday Oyinloye
PharmAcess Foundation has reiterated its commitment to be innovator and catalyst for practical changes that can be scaled to enable more access to better healthcare services for all Nigerians
The Country Director of PharmAccess Foundation Ms. Njide Ndili stated this while awarding the SafeCare category at the 2021 Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award (NHEA) held in Lagos.
She said all award nominees were selected for their passionate commitment to quality improvement and service delivery.
In her words: “Our SafeCare standards are internationally recognized and create a transparent improvement path for health facilities’ seeking excellence in healthcare service delivery. SafeCare standards are accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation.”
The NHEA is designed to celebrate distinguished personalities and organizations who have contributed greatly to the growth of the Nigerian health sector.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Ebute-Metta, Paelon Memorial Hospital, amongst other healthcare organizations received awards of recognition for quality healthcare delivery at the event.
Prof Abayomi received the award as “Health Commissioner of the year”, FMC Ebute-Metta received award of “SafeCare Public Facility of the Year” while Paelon Memorial Hospital received the award of “SafeCare Private Facility of the Year” award.
Speaking at the event, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health who was honored for his outstanding leadership in handling the COVID-19 crisis in his state dedicated the award to all healthcare practitioners who helped Lagos State to combat the pandemic.
While receiving his own award, the Chief Medical Director for the FMC Ebute Metta, Dr Adedamola Dada commended the organizers of the Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award 2021 for celebrating healthcare heroes
“This award would spur us to greater heights. I dedicate the award to our patients, staff, Board of Management and to our supervising Minister, Senator Adeleke Mamora.” he said.
In her own remarks, the Managing Director of Paelon Memorial Hospital, Dr. Ngozi Onyia said: “my decision to sign up for SafeCare when I did was one of the best business decisions I took. It put us on a growth and constant improvement trajectory. That has been our differentiating factor. We strive to do it right the first time, all the time.”
The Chairman, Advisory Board of Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award 2021, Dr. Anthony Omolola who also spoke at the event said: “We are very proud of how Lagos State Government and Ministry of Health responded to the outbreak of COVID-19. NHEA is a special award because we work diligently to select those who impacted the health care space in Nigeria.
“Our aim is to become the best in Africa and working toward all over the world. We received over 20,000 nominations and the NHEA jury shortlisted over 100 nominees made up of organizations and individuals both from the public and private sectors for voting.
“The NHEA jury made a shortlist based on published criteria for each set of awards for online voting on the NHEA voting portal. We also evaluated claims of nominees simultaneously across the country. In a bid to continuously improve our current process to meet international best practice, there was tremendous use of technology with improved security features.”
It would be recalled that PharmAccess Foundation has been a sponsor for the NHEA SafeCare award for the last 6 years in its effort to promote and excellence in healthcare service delivery in Nigeria.
