Mr. Godwin Ifeji
| credits: File copy
Mr. Godwin Ifeji is an information technology consultant with specialty in job creation. He tells Okechukwu Nnodim how government can create jobs ‘without spending a dime’
Why are you canvassing job creation?
It is because I have a passion for creating jobs in Nigeria. This passion is mainly to help the government to create jobs in areas that they don’t know about and they will not spend a dime in doing this. So, lack of funding cannot be an excuse, for this idea has to do with policy initiative. There are over 12 areas that I know can generate jobs, but my foremost interest is in the health care industry. Nigeria’s health sector can generate additional 1.5 million jobs if this policy is initiated and implemented.
How can this be achieved?
When you visit hospitals today, you will discover that there is no Electronic Record Management System. They don’t have proper ERMS and this is an opportunity for the government to key in and make a policy that will create jobs through this means. I see no reason why a hospital will be generating millions every month without creating enough jobs through ERMS.
Citing an instance, in 2004, former President George Bush of the United States announced a federal initiative for all health care systems to transit from paper-based management to electronic-based data management. Again, President Barack Obama has seen health care information technology in general and ERMS in particular as key to improving the quality of the sector while reducing cost. Working with the congress, the President secured a major investment in that sector when he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. So, people who know about these things are keying into it and are making laws to help create jobs.
There have been cases where patients die in hospitals while waiting for attendants to get their file from heaps of documents in cabinets. But if we have electronic systems, all it will take is to log into the computer and in seconds the patient’s file is out. So, the government should make a policy that will mandate hospitals to have ERMS personnel and when you calculate the number of jobs this will create, you will realise that it will be more than 1.5 million. This will not only create jobs but will save lives.
Won’t this be too expensive for hospitals in the country?
The government might decide to support, but the important thing that should be stated here is that any hospital that cannot afford to buy the software has no reason to be in the health care delivery sector. It is like telling the Federal Inland Revenue Service that every year, you incur losses. If that persists, then you should know that the FIRS will tell you to close shop. So, if you don’t meet standard, you should not operate because there has been so much complications with carrying files at hospitals.
How did you realise this figure of 1.5 million jobs?
According to records from the agencies that we have managed, we’ve figured out that pharmaceutical stores in Abuja alone for instance are more than 1,500 and there are so many that we don’t know, located in the nooks and crannies of suburbs. The hospitals, both government-owned and private ones, are up to 200. Now, the big medical centres should be able to have a functional ERMS, which should have not less than 15 employees.
The issue of salary is not a problem because once you are able to implement ERMS, you charge fees for it. By so doing, you generate revenue. And you will agree with me that every patient, who comes to the hospital, will ask for his or her record. Now, some people will say it is going to increase the cost of health care. But is life not more important than an extra N500 fee charged for swift and efficient record keeping?
What should be the Federal Government’s input to this?
The caveat to this is that the Federal Government should have a central health care system for this to work properly. This system will integrate all the hospital applications. This means that all of the hospitals must link to the central health care system. So, as a patient of an Abuja hospital, if you go to Lagos, they will be able to retrieve the information stating that you used the National Hospital, FCT. I once took ill when I went to work in Atlanta, the United States, and this was far away from Dallas where I lived. When I visited a hospital there, they pulled my records as supplied by the central system and told me what I’d treated before. This helped in getting the right prescription for me at a much reduced cost as the doctors were able to decipher what was wrong with me fast.
So, I’m thinking that if the government can do what is right, we will get things working in this country. I am passionate about my country and I think this is my own little way of moving the nation forward because this is one of the most interesting places to live in the world.
How would you differentiate this from the NHIS?
NHIS is the National Health Insurance Scheme and insurance mainly covers you on things that are new not the problems that have been there for a long time. For instance, if you have a wrecked car and you insure it, the insurance firm will not pay for it. If you visit a hospital when you already have a heart disease, and you are on the NHIS despite the fact that the ailment has been there for long, since there is no record to show that, the scheme will be spending much money on your health. This should not be so. But with this initiative, things like that will be stopped because your medical records will be checked with ease before any treatment is given to you.
This is only one of the benefits of this policy to the NHIS. There are a lot of benefits which this will have on the health sector generally. I’m very sure that it will reduce deaths at hospitals by a very good margin.
Have you made any effort to educate the government on this?
It is terrible. You write proposals and they will steal it. They will change your letter heading, name, e-payment and everything that links the idea to you. After making it their own, they will approve it. It has happened not once and not twice. However, if they can make it work, then it is good. But the sad thing is that they won’t.
We face the problem of having our ideas stolen and used without mentioning our input in anyway. Most time I see my ideas being utilised by some ministries and they do this without telling me that they appreciate the idea. Except on a few occasions that I met them in conferences and I made noise there, then they will plead for calm but will not act aright. So, that is why some of us with laudable ideas are very careful nowadays.
Source : Punch Nigeria
Via; @FreshMindWorld
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