Total Health Trust Holds Annual Forum For Health Care Providers And Professionals. Outlines Healthcare Resilience Lessons Of Post Covid -19

The annual forum for health care providers and professionals organized by Total Health Trust Ltd. Nigeria took place in Lagos yesterday.

The event which assembles health care providers and other health related professionals was held both in digital and physical gathering.

In his opening remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Mr. Kieran Godden thanked the participants for their resilience and doggedness in the face of the challenging health care crisis occasioned by covid -19. He regrets the disruption of life system and world economies resulting from the universal incursion of Covid -19. He however encouraged the frontline soldiers of the ravaging attack of the pandemic; the health care workers to be watchful, hopeful and careful in containing the scourge. "..I urge us all to continue our vigilance and to keep up our hope. We lost someone very close to us this week. I implore everyone to get a vaccination as Phase Two of Nigeria’s vaccination programme has commenced".

Mr. Kieran Godden (Chief Executive Officer) addressing participants at the forum

The CEO whose passion for health care services earned the Company award and certificate at the 7th edition of the NHEA Awards in Lagos unveiled the theme of this year's forum: "The theme for this year’s forum is “Creating Impact in Chaos: Healthcare Resilience Lessons Post Covid-19”.

Dr. Otefe Edebi MBBS, MMP, FMCPsych, Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychologist presented a paper titled: "Creating Impact in Chaos: Healthcare Resilience Lessons Post COVID-19". His lecture began with a quote by Anthony Robbins, “One of the most important decisions you can make to ensure your long-term happiness is to decide to use whatever life gives you in the moment” He went further to explain 'resillience' from different views as: “…the ability to bounce back from adversity, frustration, and misfortune…” - Ledesma, 2014. “the developable capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict, and failure or even positive events, progress, and increased responsibility” - Luthans, 2002a: 702 “…a stable trajectory of healthy functioning after a highly adverse event” - Bonanno et al., 2004; Bonanno et al., 2011 “…the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully” - Masten, 2014; Southwick, 2014.

Dr. Edebi outlined four health resilience lessons from post covid -19: re-evaluation, innovation, focus and information.

Dr. Otefe Edebi is currently serving as the Medical Director of Gracehill Place Hospital. Following the practice of ‘Social Distancing’ as an impactful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘THE GRACEHILL PLACE’ recently leveraged on modern technology to introduce ‘Telepsychiatry’ as a consulting service for persons who need Psychiatry or Psychology consultation despite movement restrictions or the fear of visiting a medical facility in these times.

Dr Chinyeaka Aguboshim (Head, Provider Management at Total Health Trust) presenting a paper at the forum

Below is a paper presented by Dr. Chinyeaka Aguboshim, Head, Provider Management, Total Health Trust Limited, at the forum, titled: "Creating Impact in Chaos"

Our Provider Forum offers us opportunity to interact with our providers, generating useful insights from the interaction which we plough back into helping us forge better partnerships with you while promoting your interests.•Since last year, the world has experienced chaos like never been witnessed since the end of the World Wars. The effect of this chaos can best be captured in the expression ‘NEW NORMAL’ seeing it changed virtually every aspect of life and living forever

•It is in the light of the above that the theme of this event, “CREATING IMPACT IN CHAOS: HEALTHCARE RESILIENCE LESSONS POST COVID-19” can be termed perfect.

•As players in the healthcare sector, there are positive developments that have happened in the midst of this chaos that can find relevance across board.

•We have assembled a set of resource persons from different sub-sectors of healthcare to share these lessons over the next few days across our regions. We are here to learn and implement so we can all navigate the pandemic and emerge successfully at the other end of the tunnel.

There are three key words in the heading above that needs to be situated in the context of the theme of this programme:

L-R: Dr Chinyeaka Aguboshim, Head, Provider Management, Total Health Trust, Mr. Kieran Godden, CEO, Total Health Trust, and Dr Eyitayo Abejide, Head, Medical Services, Total Health Trust, at the THT Virtual Provider Forum held in Lagos recently.

•Chaos: State of disorder and confusion
•Impact: To have a strong effect on something
•Clarity: Coherent and intelligible; easily understood

By ‘clarity amidst chaos’, we refer to:

•Generating and maintaining the ability to remain resolute in achieving set organizational objectives in the face of disorderliness

•Continuously making the right decisions, maintaining the right attitude, infusing the right inputs, using the right resources, generating the right outputs optimally in spite of things not being what they use to be!

At THT, we have remained steadfast in being your ally through thick and thin, and the pandemic even brought forth our resilience in navigating the chaos efficiently.

Prior to the pandemic, it would have been awkward to mention ‘work-from-home’ but the chaos showed us we can!

At THT, we have been able to efficiently conduct various aspects of our services remotely. We have continued to maintain regular contact with our providers. Processes such as:

Claims submission and processing, Accreditation and Re-accreditation, Reconciliations, etc. have been efficiently carried out virtually

Dr Eyitayo Abejide (Head, Medical Services, Total Health Trust) at the forum

In response to the increasing costs of healthcare resources and associated costs, we have reviewed our tariffs since the pandemic and remained flexible enough towards addressing fluctuations in costs. We have maintained the services of quality-based third parties to help us address shortfalls in healthcare products.

That we have successfully migrated this programme from the usual physical event to a virtual one in line with the universal safety protocols for the pandemic, goes a long way in potentially preventing further spread of the coronavirus.

Our providers still remain frontliners in the fight against the pandemic and the great risk of putting us all under one roof is quite significant and possibly outweighs any potential benefit it may bring.

Beyond the review of tariffs, We went far in showing love for our providers and clients during the heat of the pandemic by providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) across board through the months of April to November 2020. This helped safeguard our providers while still providing care for our clients.

L-R: Dr Eyitayo Abejide, Head, Medical Services, and Dr Chinyeaka Aguboshim, Head, Provider Management, Total Health Trust at the forum

Basic Lessons for Healthcare Resilience in Chaos

By Healthcare Resilience, we mean the ability to healthcare providers to absorb chaos, adapt lessons learnt and re-organise in order to continue delivering needed services in a timely manner.

While our resource persons will be more in-depth with this, we believe there are basic things that can help us all during this chaos.

It is no new that the Delta variant is here, and that we are in the midst of a Third Wave. It has become imperative that we do not let our guards down…the war is not yet over

Final Word
Like is usual with this event, there are lots of exciting freebies to go with it. There are raffle draws and lots of gifts to be won, so it will be the complete package. Be sure THT will always be THT and we keep MAKING AFRICA HEALTHIER.

Once more, you are welcome to this programme