Late Professor Elebute’s Work On Patient’s Empathy Takes Center Stage At His First Memorial Lecture

Oluchi Chibuzor

Health stakeholders at the Late Professor Emmanuel Adeyemo Elebute, First Memorial lecture held by Society for Quality in Healthcare in Nigeria (SQHCN), believed that his work on patient empathy undoubtedly deserved to be honoured as his services to healthcare are worthy of note.

In view of this, SQHCN has decided to establish the ‘Late Professor Emmanuel Elebute Adeyemo Prize on Patient Safety and Quality’ aimed at deepening his work on patient safety and improved quality health systems at medical post graduate studies level.

This is because he believed strongly in the need for healthcare providers to be empathetic which would ultimately improve patient outcomes, while ensuring that SQHN standards for accreditation had a chapter on Empathy.

According to SQHCN this was the first standard for Hospital Accreditation with a chapter on Empathy and was a giant and exemplar of excellence in Healthcare who wished and strived for access, quality and Patient Safety in healthcare in Nigeria.

Speaking at the lecture, former Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate said during the period when he served in the Federal Government, late Professor Elebute was an important thought partner who encouraged them to focus on the quality of health care in Nigeria.

“Our engagements with him then informed the clinical governance initiative we started that led to a National Quality Strategy to be developed in the Federal Ministry of Health.

However as the guest lecturer, on ‘Reimagining The Future Of Healthcare In Africa: A Healthcare Quality Perspective’, Pate said, Quality should be embedded within all pre-service health workforce training and continuing professional education, with a team-based and multi-disciplinary approach.

He advised that provider payment mechanisms that measure and reward quality would set the right incentives for public and private providers adding that quality was not cheap and a country must invest.

According to him, “Measurement of quality, tracking and continuous improvement must be at the top of mind for health professionals and managers in our health systems. Such training should include large doses of interpersonal elements and teamwork.

“With increased domestic financing for health, governments should upgrade health infrastructure and equipment, ensuring adequate arrangements for maintenance. Using digital technology can improve diagnostics, integration and continuity of care, as well as enable patients to be more active participants in the production of health.

As a direct beneficiary of the academic prowess of the late professor the Founder and president Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, said from her own “perspectives as the Founding President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, i was inspired by Professor Elebute’s works, encouragement to also dedicate our work to improving the availability and the quality of standards of health in Nigeria .

“This is something that in the old days it used to be handed down from the global partners, but what you are seeing here is a home grown initiative that is actually working to global standards certainly from the Wellbeing Foundation perspective,’ she said.

For the Board Secretary, SQHCN, Dr. Abayomi Sule, “we have used this lecture to commemorate professor Elebute’s lifestyle and contribution to access quality and financial risk protection in Nigeria.

“But in terms of quality his notion was that quality is not what you leave to the doctor, private sector, government or even the patient alone; but something all of us should be involved with.

“All stakeholders that are involved with quality inclusive of all the health care workers, patients and government must come together to better understand what quality is and how we can better understand improving quality of care.”