Diamond Bank partners MCF, organises training to reduce medical tourism

In a bid to reducing medical tourism in Nigeria, Diamond bank in partnership with Medical Credit Fund (MCF) and Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) are training some selected group of health practitioners on the business aspect of healthcare.

The first phase of the training was conducted at the Lagos Business School’s EDC and it aimed at helping the health practitioners strike a balance between healthcare and business.

Enlightening on Diamond’s bank involvement, Chioma Kema Ogwo, Head, New Financial Services, Emerging Businesses, Diamond Bank Plc said having realised the importance of knowledge in building businesses, the bank had decided to focus on certain sectors in the country with the health sector being one of them.

According to her, the Health Management Programme (HMP) was carved out of Certificate of Entrepreneur Management (CEM), a general programme for people in business and a different curriculum developed for the sector upon recognizing their distinction from other forms of businesses.

Her words: “this is called Health Management Programme (HMP), for people in the business in the health sector and the first of the series we are having. We decided to create this programme from a programme called Certificate of Entrepreneur Management (CEM) which is for people in business generally when we discovered that people in the health sector are different, and cannot be put together with other sectors because they are kind of specialized so we decided to develop a different curriculum for them.”

L-R: Managing Director, DE-EIBON Pharmaceutical Limited, Chisom Maduekwe; Business Development Director, Medical Credit Fund Africa, Fisayo Okusanya; Medical Director/ CEO, Saseun Hospital and Maternity, Dr. Rowland Saseun; Head, Non-Financial Service, Emerging Business Diamond Bank Plc, Chioma Ogwo and CEO, Ever Right Diagnostic and Laboratory Services Ltd, Okpara Everest, at the Diamond Bank Business Workshop for the health sector, held at Lagos Business School, Ajah, Lagos….recently

On what the bank tends to gain, Ogwo said “we are very interested in developing the health sector and reducing medical tourism which is prevalent in Nigerian by improving what we have here. We have set aside some fund for the health sector, and we want to be recognized as a business partner for those in health sector.

Corroborating her, Mr. Fisayo Okunsanya, Business Development Director, Medical credit Fund said as an organisation in partnership with Diamond bank to give loan for healthcare, they found out that many of them like to focus on the clinical aspect of the business, this therefore preceded the programme to help them understand the business side of healthcare to make their business more attractive.

He emphatically said they expect that they run better businesses by infusing everything they have been taught into their business which will yield a turnaround that would be evident immediately.

On how the programme was of benefit to them, some of the Diamond Bank sponsored health practitioners, which included Dr. Rowland Saseun, Medical Director Saseun Hospital & Maternity, Apapa, Pharm. Chisom Maduekwe, Managing Director, De-Elbon Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and Mrs. Tinuola Akinremi, confessed to have gained some ample fresh knowledge they wished they had from the onset of their careers.

Dr. Saseun, who described the programme as a rear one said, “ I have learnt so much that I wished I had learnt before I started my hospital 15 years ago. If I had this opportunity beforehand, am sure I would have done better both in record keeping, account keeping and even customer care – how you pacify them when they are sick, they are in pain, they came to the hospital and they still have to pay so if you are not good to them, they are not going to come back even at that time when you think they are rude or harsh to you, just know that they are in pain. They are some of the thing we were not though in medical school.”

While Mrs. Tinuola Akinremi, said she was a better person and more informed and knowledgeable in terms of Human Resource Management aspect of  the business.

They appreciated Diamond bank for the opportunity and affirmed that the changes have started already, as they were already making amends and will be passing down their acquired knowledge to their facilities so that together, they can reach out to the larger society.

The bank sponsored five participants were chosen from divergent specialties in the health sector, including Health Monitoring Organizations(HMOs).