Stakeholders push home-based care to decongest hospitals

Healthcare professionals in Lagos are urging greater use of home-based care as hospitals face pressure and some patients struggle to reach them.

The call came at a summit organised by Nexa Nurses, a Nigeria-based healthcare company, in Ikeja. Certified nurses, doctors and other professionals discussed challenges in healthcare delivery and how care provided at home could expand access.

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We have a lot of patients who have issues going to hospitals. They have been placed on daily injections for a period.

Dr Tunji Akintade, medical director of Hamaab Medical Centre and a former chairman of the Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria in Lagos State, said the shortage of healthcare workers had made alternatives to hospital visits increasingly necessary. The COVID-19 pandemic, he said, showed that some patients could receive medical attention remotely.

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But if you connect with Nexa Nurse, you can always get nurses in that neighbourhood to do the same thing without the patients clustering in the hospital environment.

“We have a lot of patients who have issues going to hospitals. They have been placed on daily injections for a period,” Akintade said. “But if you connect with Nexa Nurse, you can always get nurses in that neighbourhood to do the same thing without the patients clustering in the hospital environment.”

He said the approach could also provide jobs for nurses who have not secured placements in government facilities. “Quite a lot of nurses are there. They are not even getting placements in the government. But if you give them this virtual opportunity, they will be gainfully employed,” he said.

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Quite a lot of nurses are there. They are not even getting placements in the government. But if you give them this virtual opportunity, they will be gainfully employed.

Akintade identified elderly people and others who have difficulty accessing hospitals as potential beneficiaries. He stressed, however, that nurses need proper prescriptions for their services and must complete digital documentation after assignments. He also described nurses as both the “eyes and ears of the doctor” and the voice of patients. At the summit, Nexa Nurses unveiled a mobile application to connect patients with qualified and registered nurses.

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As nurses, you are the eyes and ears of the doctor, but also the voice of the patients.