Pharmacists partner LUTH, Omron toward zero cardiovascular incident in Nigeria

In the light of the current increase in cardiovascular diseases, with over 35 per cent Nigerian being hypertensive, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in partnership with Omron Health Care has set up a pilot project towards preventing hypertension at its earliest stage in the country.

The project, which was dubbed Omron Medical Connect, is geared towards achieving zero cardiovascular disease rate in the near future by doctor consultation and prescriptions for hypertensive patients through their community pharmacies.

Speaking with Managing Director, Medic Pharmacy, Pharmacist Bridget Okocha, recently in Lagos, she explained; “this to us means we are coming closer to a world-class practice, where the health care professionals team up at one goal, patients care and achieving the best for the patients.

According to her, it would empower community pharmacists to help Nigerians avert incidence of heart attacks, and most importantly, the load of the high doctor patient’s ratio on cardiovascular diseases can be reduced by this pilot project.

Senior Group Manager, Omron Health Care, Mr. Paul Stevens revealed that, the project commenced with an Outreach for hypertension screening at Gbagada in Lagos over the weekend, where 500 people were screened and over 5,000 thousand more to be screened across the state within a period of nine months.

Stevens explained; “Only about 5 per cent Nigerians have hypertension under control, with the larger population at risk, hence, this pilot project targets to reach Nigerian on how to manage their hypertension via their community pharmacies instead of direct to the doctor.”

He was however, quick to say, “this is not a transfer of medical care of hospitals to pharmacies, but rather a medical connect, which affords the average Nigerian to access cheap hypertension consultations with as low as N250 from their community pharmacies.