Accidents: FG adopts PPP for improved healthcare delivery

The Federal Government says it will adopt the Private Public Partnership (PPP) arrangement to improve healthcare delivery in the country.

The Minister of State, Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said this when he visited St. Gerald’s Catholic Hospital, Kakuri, Kaduna, where the doctors involved in an accident were treated.

This is contained in a statement issued by Mrs Imaobong Udo, Director, Media and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health, on Friday in Abuja.

The statement quoted Ehanire as saying that ministry would collaborate with the hospital on accident emergency response and management under the PPP policy.

It said that the minister thanked the hospital authorities for caring for the victims.While lamenting the tragic loss, the minister explained that his visit was aimed at seeing what lessons could be drawn from the sad incident to forestall future occurrence, said the statement.

Ehanire underscored the urgent need for an Emergency Management Training (EMT) for road safety ambulance teams as well as refresher courses on techniques on safe driving for all drivers.

The statement added that FRSC Assistant Corps Marshal, Mr Victor Nwokolo, told the minister on Thursday when he (Ehanire) visited the scene of the mishap that the accident was caused by expired tyre burst.

It quoted Nwokolo as saying that the panicky driver applied the breaks “too suddenly”, which affected the tyres.According to the FRSC official, the accident was caused by a sudden burst in the vehicle’s old tyres manufactured in 2008.

It said that the road safety officials further quoted results of their investigation as showing that the victims were not on seat belt at the time of the accident.

The Proprietor of the hospital, Dr Mathew Ndagoso, who was represented by the hospital’s Administrator, Rev. Sister Beatrice Danladi, said that the hospital did its best to save the victims but could not achieve much.

The proprietor appealed to government to assist in upgrading the accident and emergency unit of the hospital to guarantee better services to accident victims who were often rushed to the hospital.