By Morlai Sesay
To enhance sustainable healthcare facilities in Sierra Leone, a top-notch medical institution in India, Yashoda Hospital, has kindly partnered with the Connaught government hospital to ensure that local doctors in Sierra Leone are self-sufficient and can render treatments to critical ailments in the country. The much-anticipated ceremony occurred at Connaught Hospital conference hall on Saturday, 17th February 2024.
Giving a summary regarding the institution's establishment, the vice president of Yashoda Hospital, R. Phanindra, recounted that Yashoda Hospital, which was set as a small clinic, began operations in 1989. He updated that it is a 500-bed multi-specialty hospital that is ISO certified, and the laboratories and facilities, he said, are accredited by NABL and NABH. For three decades, Phanindra unveiled that Yashoda Group hospital has been providing quality healthcare for people with diverse medical needs. Under their astute leadership and strong management, he explained that Yashoda Hospital has evolved as a center of excellence in medicine, providing the highest quality standards of medical treatment to all sections of society. According to Phanindra, the hospital is well known for revolutionary technology, the best medical expertise, and advanced procedures.
"Yashoda offers sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic care in virtually every specialty and subspecialty of medicine and support. Yashoda has three more hospitals in Hyderabad, which has 62 medical specialists and 700 specialist doctors. In the last five years, around 25,000 patients were admitted to all three hospitals and have done approximately 100,000 surgeries successfully ", he affirmed.
Phanindra ended by disclosing that Yashoda has not come to Sierra Leone to extort money from the citizens but to help the government of Sierra Leone to make sure that the local doctors are self-sufficient and can render treatments to critical ailments at an affordable cost rather than having to travel to India to have quality medical treatment. The exchange of knowledge, he noted, is a critical goal behind their visit to help the government and its citizens to achieve sustainable healthcare facilities in the country.
On his part, the surgeon specialist, Ravi Suman Reddy, started by expressing his appreciation to the government of Sierra Leone for creating the platform for foreign investors to fly in the country and showcase their work to move the nation forward. In addition to what Vice President R.hanindra stated, Reddy updated that this well-known establishment acts as a one-stop destination servicing customers both locally and from other parts of the world. Over the course of its journey, he disclosed that the business has established a firm foothold in its industry. The belief that customer satisfaction is as important as their products and services, Reddy stated that the work of Yashoda has helped the institution to garner a vast base of customers across the globe, which continues to grow by the day. The business, he said, employs individuals who are dedicated to their respective roles and put in a lot of effort to achieve the company's shared vision and larger goals. Shortly, Yashoda, he noted, aims to expand its line of products and services and, at the same time, cater to a larger client base.
On creating an effective universal healthcare system in Sierra Leone, he asserted that the need to focus on developing stronger partnerships among local medical practitioners in the country and work together to develop implementable and sustainable solutions for surgical, obstetric, and anesthetic care is essential. "We also will have to ensure that the local surgical professionals in Sierra Leone receive top-class, ongoing surgical education in the country based on the latest available scientific research. We also need to continue to partner with subject matter experts, such as the visiting surgical professionals from Yashoda, as we work towards accelerating growth and guaranteeing the quality of existing healthcare systems for our people of Sierra Leone.
Commenting on education, he emphasized, " Education of local doctors and nurses in Sierra Leone will also play a key role. We need to share knowledge and build trust among the Sierra Leonean population by sharing information about the individual’s right to access quality surgical care and the surgical solutions that are available for common health challenges. We need to educate our local community healthcare professionals and carers so they can correctly direct their patients to the medical and surgical hospitals that can assist them in their time of need", he elucidated.
He summed up his speech by reiterating that Yashoda is here to stay and provide the best medical treatment to the people of Sierra Leone at an affordable cost and, at the same time, assist the government in improving key medical sectors in the country.
Senior Matron at the Connaught Hospital, Fatmata Kanjia Jalloh, assured the people of Sierra Leone that based on her experience at Yashoda Hospital in India about the proposed partnership is that the move is ignited based on the fact that most Sierra Leoneans who could afford to travel abroad to seek medical treatment choose India as their ultimate destination. Jalloh updated that being that most Sierra Leoneans who travel to India for medical treatment are mostly stranded, Yashoda Hospital, according to her research, is the solution to such an alarming crisis since, like others, they first pick up their patients at the airport and at the same time provide accommodations for them.
The collaboration, she said, is to help improve the medical equipment that local doctors use, train doctors, nurses and, eventually, build the capacity of healthcare facilities in the country so that the idea of always traveling to India and other places in the world to seek medical treatment could be minimized.
She concluded that 55 Sierra Leoneans within the country to benefit directly from Yashoda, noting that they are undergoing Neuron surgeries. Asked whether Yashoda will continue to render free services to the people of Sierra Leone, she updated that the services are not going to be free but that they are going to be affordable since specific treatments involve traveling from Sierra Leone to India.
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