I am in Monrovia for a scientific meeting. I have been here for about a week. I have learnt quite a lot during this short stay. I itemise my musings below:
1. The destruction caused by the Liberian war is of no small dimension
2. The attendant national retrogression is not quantifiable
3. The human spirit is resilient
4. The efforts of the government here to return a similitude of normal life has reached a fevered pitch
5. The favourable disposition of the average Liberian towards Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is contagious
6. The plea of Liberia for assistance with capacity building is urgent and cogent
7. There is a marked presence of the international community here helping with national revamping
8. The dearth of quality translational research in the West African sub-region is alarming
9. Feeble efforts are being made by stakeholders to correct this dearth
These are some of my thoughts.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Healthcare-Associated Infections
I received this email today. The content may interest you. Please read.
Hi IFEOLU
One thing everyone can agree on, no matter where they come down on the current health care debates, is that no one should get sick as a result of visiting the doctor.
Hospitals are rightfully expected to get you better but that's not always the case. Sometimes people are picking up infections, from pneumonia to antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA), while under treatment for other health problems, or even while just in the hospital having a baby. That's a situation that could, and should, be completely avoidable.
Kimberly-Clark Health Care is on the forefront of protecting patients from Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) and has put together a site dedicated to that prevention called HAI Watch: Not on My Watch. The site has information for both healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers.
I would like to ask for your help getting the word out on AdvocateHealth!. Here's a microsite which explains everything. Please use any of the images, logos, videos, etc, on your site:
http://www.haiwatchnews.com/
Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are able to post, I'd really appreciated it if you'd send me the link.
Thank you,
Barbara
--
Barbara Dunn
barbara@haiwatchnews.com
www.haiwatch.com
Hi IFEOLU
One thing everyone can agree on, no matter where they come down on the current health care debates, is that no one should get sick as a result of visiting the doctor.
Hospitals are rightfully expected to get you better but that's not always the case. Sometimes people are picking up infections, from pneumonia to antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA), while under treatment for other health problems, or even while just in the hospital having a baby. That's a situation that could, and should, be completely avoidable.
Kimberly-Clark Health Care is on the forefront of protecting patients from Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) and has put together a site dedicated to that prevention called HAI Watch: Not on My Watch. The site has information for both healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers.
I would like to ask for your help getting the word out on AdvocateHealth!. Here's a microsite which explains everything. Please use any of the images, logos, videos, etc, on your site:
http://www.haiwatchnews.com/
Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are able to post, I'd really appreciated it if you'd send me the link.
Thank you,
Barbara
--
Barbara Dunn
barbara@haiwatchnews.com
www.haiwatch.com
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Public-private partnerships for healthcare delivery in the African context: neologisms, sacrosanctity and the re-birth of Garki hospital.
The following abstract has been accepted for presentation at the 2nd WONCA African regional conference in South Africa. The abstract is listed on the conference website. The conference comes up at the end of this month. Please read.
Oral presentation.
FALEGAN Ifeolu Joseph. Consultant Family Physician, Garki Hospital, Tafawa Balewa Way, Area 8, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria. www.advocatehealth.blogspot.com. faleganji@yahoo.com.
The quest for efficiency and sustainability is beginning to impact healthcare delivery globally. There is a gradual departure from the norm. Public-private partnerships for healthcare delivery are being erroneously regarded as new entrants into the field of health systems reform. This axiom is being promoted in the parlance of world bodies in an attempt to improve health outcomes. However, healthcare delivery in every country involves some form of public-private partnership. In many countries where care is devolved through the public system, there is significant input from the private sector and vice-versa. This fact holds true for many African countries.
The public health system is decadent in a number of failed African states. The consequence is an unregulated private-driven healthcare system with a propensity for high out-of-pocket expenses in contradiction to the quality of care received. In Nigeria, for instance, close to 70% of healthcare is delivered by the private sector.
Garki hospital, Abuja, is the first acclaimed public-private partnership for health in Nigeria. The hospital was revived two years ago in a franchise that merged private finance initiative with government’s quest for quality healthcare delivery and has since then been dispensing care to patients from within and outside the Federal Capital Territory.
This presentation examines the different models of public-private partnerships in healthcare delivery drawing on examples from Spain, Australia, England, India and the Garki experiment. The presentation considers the advantages and disadvantages of public-private partnerships, the dichotomy between public and private initiatives and the key issues influencing performance such as competitiveness, cost, quality and flexibility. The implications of these especially as they relate to primary care and the practice of Family Medicine in resource-constrained settings are discussed.
Oral presentation.
FALEGAN Ifeolu Joseph. Consultant Family Physician, Garki Hospital, Tafawa Balewa Way, Area 8, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria. www.advocatehealth.blogspot.com. faleganji@yahoo.com.
The quest for efficiency and sustainability is beginning to impact healthcare delivery globally. There is a gradual departure from the norm. Public-private partnerships for healthcare delivery are being erroneously regarded as new entrants into the field of health systems reform. This axiom is being promoted in the parlance of world bodies in an attempt to improve health outcomes. However, healthcare delivery in every country involves some form of public-private partnership. In many countries where care is devolved through the public system, there is significant input from the private sector and vice-versa. This fact holds true for many African countries.
The public health system is decadent in a number of failed African states. The consequence is an unregulated private-driven healthcare system with a propensity for high out-of-pocket expenses in contradiction to the quality of care received. In Nigeria, for instance, close to 70% of healthcare is delivered by the private sector.
Garki hospital, Abuja, is the first acclaimed public-private partnership for health in Nigeria. The hospital was revived two years ago in a franchise that merged private finance initiative with government’s quest for quality healthcare delivery and has since then been dispensing care to patients from within and outside the Federal Capital Territory.
This presentation examines the different models of public-private partnerships in healthcare delivery drawing on examples from Spain, Australia, England, India and the Garki experiment. The presentation considers the advantages and disadvantages of public-private partnerships, the dichotomy between public and private initiatives and the key issues influencing performance such as competitiveness, cost, quality and flexibility. The implications of these especially as they relate to primary care and the practice of Family Medicine in resource-constrained settings are discussed.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Prostitution: social or spiritual problem?
I granted an interview to a Nigerian daily newspaper (The Punch of Friday, July 24, 2009; page 8). The following is a critique of the interview by one Osondu Anyalechi in another tabloid (The Sun of Saturday, August 15, 2009). I find the contradictions in Osondu’s article interesting. Please read.
Re: Prostitution is not a spiritual problem
By Osondu Anyalechi [oanyalechi@yahoo.co.uk]
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Dr. Ife Falegan, Consultant Physician at General Hospital, Abuja, was quoted in The Punch, July 24, to have said that prostitution is not a spiritual but a social problem caused by ‘lack of employment, accommodation, security and conducive environment’. This position assumes erroneously and absolutely that the drive to the cancer is money and if it is true, its cure must be money but is it always the case?
The desire for money to meet the needs he detailed above may induce a lady to join the trade but the compelling factor for most of them is certainly beyond money. A commercial sex worker confessed to me that she was deceived in Calabar by a lady who assured her of a job in Lagos. For the one-long week she stayed with her, the lady fed her and after that, initiated her into the profession. The victim said she did not know any place to go and had to join, making returns to the pimp - her commercial sex ‘godfather’.
But why didn’t she solicit for help from the Churches? A person who detests the trade may not end that way, even when all roads seem closed.
A divorcee joined the profession with the hope of making quick money with which to buy a sewing machine for making decent living. That ambition at the surface may look noble. But two, five and ten years, she was still in that business. With their charges of N 500 - N 1000 per customer and in a time of recession, ten patronizers a day is possible, could she still claim that she had not got enough money to meet that need? A few years ago, I brought five of them from Nwachukwu Drive to my office.
After ministering to them, I challenged them by tasking each of them to find her accommodation and my Church would sponsor her in any business or trade of her choice. It was painful that none of them took up the challenge. This debunks Dr. Falegan’s position about prostitution. It is certainly beyond money.
The problem is that most people define it narrowly, restricting it only to the single, giving the impression that married people are free from the mud. The lady in Proverbs chapter 7 was married. ‘Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home...’ What drives the venom goes beyond financial needs. Have drivers and houseboys, not been caught in bed with their Madams? Is the attraction to these lustful Madams money? How much did Joseph, a slave in Egypt and a houseboy to Portiphar, Pharaoh’s Captain of the Guard, have and to give her amorous and well-provided mistress? Have teenage school boys not been sexually harassed and abused by their school mistresses, old enough to be their mothers? Is it still all about money? I declare authoritatively that there is something in sexual perversion beyond what one lacks.
What do we call the practice whereby a lady, perhaps, a university student, who may not rent any apartment, but lives with her parents and hops from one man to the other? Some of these ladies are well-provided for by their rich parents, who are respected in the society. It is not only the children of poor parents that prostitute. In fact, if the census of virginity is conducted, most of the virgins might come from poor homes and not from the nobility. May we not also limit the practice to ladies as it is a malaise common to all genders.
If prostitution is a social problem, is armed robbery also the same? Are all the armed robbers from poor parents? Do we not hear how the children of the rich terrorize the society? There is a spirit behind prostitution and also armed robbery. What really prompts a man, married to a beauty queen, to be sleeping with his craw-craw-infested-mouth-stinking housemaid?
Why should a man leave his wife only to travel miles on end for an ugly lady even at the risk of his life? In agony, a wife told me that it would have been a different ball game if the lady was more beautiful than she. There was a man who was sleeping with a lady and in the midnight, he raped her baby that slept with them. Was it normal – a social problem? My wife ministered once to a prominent prostitute and she repented and dumped her foul profession and became a great tool in God’s hand. She was not given money but God’s Word. The unclean spirit was rebuked and it ran away. A lady in England was introduced to opium and the need of money to purchase the venom drove her to harlotry until the spirit was rebuked. She repented and became an evangelist.
If we give ten commercial sex workers one million Naira each, four of them may likely quit while the remaining six may continue. The same goes for armed robbers. There is of a truth, a social element in prostitution but the major element is spiritual. We met a lady in Tarkwa Bay who came for prostitution. We shared God’s Word with her and convicted by the Holy Spirit, she packed her stuff and followed us home. We gave her only her transport fare. Thus, it was not money but God’s Word that forced her out of the lion’s den.
Re: Prostitution is not a spiritual problem
By Osondu Anyalechi [oanyalechi@yahoo.co.uk]
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Dr. Ife Falegan, Consultant Physician at General Hospital, Abuja, was quoted in The Punch, July 24, to have said that prostitution is not a spiritual but a social problem caused by ‘lack of employment, accommodation, security and conducive environment’. This position assumes erroneously and absolutely that the drive to the cancer is money and if it is true, its cure must be money but is it always the case?
The desire for money to meet the needs he detailed above may induce a lady to join the trade but the compelling factor for most of them is certainly beyond money. A commercial sex worker confessed to me that she was deceived in Calabar by a lady who assured her of a job in Lagos. For the one-long week she stayed with her, the lady fed her and after that, initiated her into the profession. The victim said she did not know any place to go and had to join, making returns to the pimp - her commercial sex ‘godfather’.
But why didn’t she solicit for help from the Churches? A person who detests the trade may not end that way, even when all roads seem closed.
A divorcee joined the profession with the hope of making quick money with which to buy a sewing machine for making decent living. That ambition at the surface may look noble. But two, five and ten years, she was still in that business. With their charges of N 500 - N 1000 per customer and in a time of recession, ten patronizers a day is possible, could she still claim that she had not got enough money to meet that need? A few years ago, I brought five of them from Nwachukwu Drive to my office.
After ministering to them, I challenged them by tasking each of them to find her accommodation and my Church would sponsor her in any business or trade of her choice. It was painful that none of them took up the challenge. This debunks Dr. Falegan’s position about prostitution. It is certainly beyond money.
The problem is that most people define it narrowly, restricting it only to the single, giving the impression that married people are free from the mud. The lady in Proverbs chapter 7 was married. ‘Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home...’ What drives the venom goes beyond financial needs. Have drivers and houseboys, not been caught in bed with their Madams? Is the attraction to these lustful Madams money? How much did Joseph, a slave in Egypt and a houseboy to Portiphar, Pharaoh’s Captain of the Guard, have and to give her amorous and well-provided mistress? Have teenage school boys not been sexually harassed and abused by their school mistresses, old enough to be their mothers? Is it still all about money? I declare authoritatively that there is something in sexual perversion beyond what one lacks.
What do we call the practice whereby a lady, perhaps, a university student, who may not rent any apartment, but lives with her parents and hops from one man to the other? Some of these ladies are well-provided for by their rich parents, who are respected in the society. It is not only the children of poor parents that prostitute. In fact, if the census of virginity is conducted, most of the virgins might come from poor homes and not from the nobility. May we not also limit the practice to ladies as it is a malaise common to all genders.
If prostitution is a social problem, is armed robbery also the same? Are all the armed robbers from poor parents? Do we not hear how the children of the rich terrorize the society? There is a spirit behind prostitution and also armed robbery. What really prompts a man, married to a beauty queen, to be sleeping with his craw-craw-infested-mouth-stinking housemaid?
Why should a man leave his wife only to travel miles on end for an ugly lady even at the risk of his life? In agony, a wife told me that it would have been a different ball game if the lady was more beautiful than she. There was a man who was sleeping with a lady and in the midnight, he raped her baby that slept with them. Was it normal – a social problem? My wife ministered once to a prominent prostitute and she repented and dumped her foul profession and became a great tool in God’s hand. She was not given money but God’s Word. The unclean spirit was rebuked and it ran away. A lady in England was introduced to opium and the need of money to purchase the venom drove her to harlotry until the spirit was rebuked. She repented and became an evangelist.
If we give ten commercial sex workers one million Naira each, four of them may likely quit while the remaining six may continue. The same goes for armed robbers. There is of a truth, a social element in prostitution but the major element is spiritual. We met a lady in Tarkwa Bay who came for prostitution. We shared God’s Word with her and convicted by the Holy Spirit, she packed her stuff and followed us home. We gave her only her transport fare. Thus, it was not money but God’s Word that forced her out of the lion’s den.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Hospitals for Humanity: 2009 Medical Mission Initiative to Africa
Hospitals for Humanity is a not-for-profit organization working assiduously to provide access to quality healthcare in developing economies. This organization adopts a pragmatic approach by directly providing alternatives to the sparsely spread, decadent and inefficient healthcare delivery channels in resource-constrained settings.
From the 6th to the 15th of December 2009, Hospitals for Humanity will be in Isanlu, Kogi State, Nigeria, on a Medical Mission Initiative to Africa to provide healthcare services to the people.
I put up this post so that you can adjust your schedule to free you to participate.
Please check the following link for details: www. hospitalsforhumanity.org.
From the 6th to the 15th of December 2009, Hospitals for Humanity will be in Isanlu, Kogi State, Nigeria, on a Medical Mission Initiative to Africa to provide healthcare services to the people.
I put up this post so that you can adjust your schedule to free you to participate.
Please check the following link for details: www. hospitalsforhumanity.org.
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