Since Garki Hospital was taken over by Nisa Premier Hospital on a public-private partnership agreement in 2007, the hospital has treated more than two million patients, recorded more than 40 open heart surgeries, 26 kidney transplants with over 100 hip and knee joint replacement surgeries while subsidising IVF services.
Medical Director of Garki Hospital, Dr Adamu Onu, who made the disclosure when a WHO’s fact-finding team visited Garki Hospital, Abuja, said the hospital owing to the reforms carried out since 2016, presently has 35,555 NHIS clients and 8,118 enrollees on the FCT health insurance register.
The WHO team, led by Dr Joseph Kutzin, Head of Health Financing and Governance from Geneva, had Dr Juliet Nabyonga, Fahdi Dkhimi, Kingsley Addai and Dr Francis Ukwuije. It also included the Director General, National Health Insurance Authority, Dr Mohammed Sambo.
Dr Onu said Garki Hospital has been able to cover the gap between quality health care and the people because of the success of the PPP arrangement which enables the hospital to offer premium health services at an affordable cost.
He added: “Two-thirds of the patients that use this hospital are on health insurance, so out-of-pocket patients are actually a minority and even the NHIS itself acknowledges that and regards us as a model hospital for NHIS in the whole of this country.
“We have become so efficient that an NHIS or health insurance patient can see three specialists in one day. Here you can see the cardiologist, the neurologist and the endocrinologist all in one day.”
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Dr Onu said to ensure that more Nigerians can access quality health care through the health insurance scheme, the scheme needs an improvement in documentation of its beneficiaries and their records as well as to streamline its areas of insurance coverage.
Dr Kutzin, also the head of Health Financing and Governance in Geneva, said the team came to Nigeria to explore ways of assisting in health financing with a view to promoting universal health care so that all Nigerians irrespective of their socioeconomic class can get equal access.
The Federal Government recently announced its expansion of the health insurance system with the launch of a new health insurance package, Group Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Programme, GIFSHIP. It was an outcome of wide-ranging and far-reaching reforms within NHIS to significantly increase the fiscal space for healthcare services.