Henceforth, patients attending Federal Government Hospitals can now report or complain on the services directly to the Minister of Health through SMS. The Minister, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin who disclosed this development at the launch of Patients’ Feedback Platform with the generic shortcode 30500, said 53 Federal government health institutions have been linked to the platform provided by MTN and Glo GSM Networks.
He explained that the reason behind the concept was on the realisation that health should not be responsibility of the patient alone as providers too have a responsibility.
He said: “The era whereby health workers think that they are doing patients a favour has gone. This platform is an engagement with the public for better service delivery. he seized the opportunity to announce that henceforth, Health workers in all Federal Government institutions will wear nametags to make the project effective, as he opined that it will enable the patient to identify and name exactly who attended to him or her
“This will allow the patient to know who to complain about. The essence of this is that transparency and accountability is brought into service delivery.. The public must be made to be aware with the power to air their fears and complaints with the realization that correction would be made.”
He explained that patients are expected to text their complaints to the number 30500. The message would be forwarded to the Ministry from where it will be disaggregated with specific codes to the hospital concerned.
According to him, the hospitals will have access to the complaints with a view of acting to correct the lapses mentioned.
While performing the launch of this innovative electronic gateway, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole tasked Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) service providers on quality of service. This is as hospital workers in Federal Government health institutions across the country have been direc
ted to carry name tags henceforth.
In her remarks, the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili noted that the service has given the masses, especially rural dwellers a voice as they can report how they were being treated by health workers to the appropriate authority.
The new feedback platform will also strengthen health regulatory bodies like the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and afford them the opportunity of bring erring members to book.
