The Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Metta, was on Friday voted 2021 SafeCare Facility of the Year award at the annual Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award held at Eko Hotel and Suite in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The facility beats Lagos State Accident and Emergency Centre, Alimosho General Hospital and Ebute Metta Health Centre to clinch the award.

The award is one of NHEA categories designed specifically to target health facilities in low- and middle-income countries, which operate in challenging environments that are often defined by staffing shortages, resource restrictions, and inadequate infrastructure.

While receiving the award, FMC Assistant Director of Corporate Services, Olorunfemi Ayoola said that the nomination came to them as a big surprise.

“We never expected the Award. However, it would spur us to greater heights. It is worthy to note that the Safecare Public Facility of the Year Award is very credible because SafeCare is being funded by the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry.

“The Award is dedicated to our Patients, Staff, Board of Management and to our Supervising Minister, Senator Adeleke Mamora,” he said.

His statement was corroborated by FMC Medical Director, Dr. Adedamola Dada, who described the NHEA as a credible platform that has existed in the health sector for quite a long time.

“We are excited that we have won the public sector health facility Award particularly the Safecare Public Sector Award. Safecare as you know is a Dutch organization funded by the Dutch foreign affairs ministry. You therefore cannot have a more credible Award.

“We are most grateful and excited and we dedicate the Award to our staff, our patients and the board of managers of our hospital and especially, our supervising minister- Dr Olorunnibe Mamora who has remained a pillar of support for everything we are doing here,” he said.

Commissioned in 1964 by the first executive president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Federal Medical Centre is one of the few health institutions that have so far proven it is possible for public hospitals to raise the standard of patient-oriented care without compromising quality.

The hospital served as an annex to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where wounded soldiers were treated in 1964. It was subsequently designated as a referral centre for Parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Transport and Aviation in 1983.

The idea of commercialising the health facility was mooted in 1996 during General Ibrahim Gumel’s tenure as Transport Minister and from then on was operated as a commercial business entity until 2004, even though it remained under the Nigerian Railway Corporation.

From its introduction of Electronic Medical Record (EMR), which has eliminated the conventional tortuous queues patients were made to pass through before they accessed health care to the erection of a N207m state-of-the-art accident and emergency complex, the Federal Medical Centre has reopened the age-long debate that public hospitals can become self-sufficient with good management.