Nisa Premier Hospital Abuja (FCT) has received the international ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Certification for standard healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
ISO is an international independent, non-governmental organisation made up of members from the national standards bodies of 165 countries.
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The certificate, which was presented by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), a member of the ISO body, is a proclamation that the hospital operates according to international standards.
The Director General of SON, Malam Farouk Salim, while presenting the certificate to the hospital in Abuja, said Nisa is the second certified hospital in Nigeria by the nation’s certification body for meeting international standards in healthcare services delivery.
Represented by Engineer Felix Nyado, the D-G urged the hospital to ensure that the system remained effective and sustainable to reap the benefit of ISO approach to quality management.
He, however, warned that “This system having been certified has been placed on annual surveillance audit to ensure continuing suitability and the effectiveness of the quality management system.
“In the cause of the audit exercises, where non-conformances are observed and are effectively resolved within the specified time frame, the system will retain the certificate.
“However the certificate will be withdrawn if the structure in place for certification breaks down and necessary corrective actions are not taken on observed non-conformances.”
The chairman of the board of the hospital and former minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, said the certification marked another development in the progress the hospital was making in terms of healthcare delivery system in the country.
He highlighted the hospital’s trajectory from a two-bedroom apartment in Gwagwalada to the current status, adding that the certification marked another landmark for the hospital. “We see that as a challenge because we are setting for ourselves, much higher standards than even the ISO certification. We are going international,” he said.
“As you can see, the progress from Gwagwalada, to Jabi and to Maitama and of course we’re going to America, London and elsewhere. So that is the internationalisation of the services of the hospital that is taking place. I’m sure in the next few weeks you will hear more about the great progress the Nisa group is making,” he said.
Dr Ibrahim Wada, the founder of the hospital, while acknowledging the progress made by the hospital to save lives under COVID, said one of the contributions of the hospital, aside from donation of oxygen cylinders to the COVID Centre in Gwagwalada, is the development of a test centre.
“We have probably the most standard Molecular Biology laboratory to help test Nigerians for COVID. We can do 100 tests a day right now; we can expand it to 500 tests in a short time in collaboration with an American NGO well-experienced in COVID testing.
We are not lagging behind in making our contribution to national development in this COVID pandemic,” he said.