Digitisation Drive Transforms Record-Keeping Across Federal Tertiary Hospitals

Nigeria’s push toward technology-driven healthcare has gained major ground, with the Federal Government confirming that roughly 80 per cent of its tertiary hospitals now run on digital systems.

Minister of State for Health, Dr Iziaq Salako, disclosed the progress during a television interview on Thursday, describing the transition as one of the sector’s most successful reforms in recent years.

Salako said the shift to electronic management of patient records had strengthened service delivery nationwide, particularly in federal hospitals undergoing the e-health reform programme.

He explained that the rollout had reached most of the country’s 75 federal tertiary health institutions, noting that while levels of compliance vary, several centres now operate fully paperless systems.

According to him, hospitals with complete digitisation process all patient activities electronically — from registration to discharge — without requiring physical documents at any point.

The minister added that some facilities had expanded their digital capabilities by introducing appointment-scheduling platforms that allow patients to arrange visits remotely. These innovations, he clarified, were developed independently by hospitals rather than as part of a central government platform.

Citing the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Metta, as an example, Salako said the hospital now operates entirely on digital records, enabling patients to present a virtual card that immediately retrieves their medical history for doctors.

He noted that the government was working to extend the digitisation model to state-owned and primary healthcare facilities to create a unified national health information network. Such an integrated system, he said, would help improve data-driven decision-making, patient monitoring and resource coordination.

Salako also linked the progress to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which places emphasis on technology-enabled public services and improved efficiency across key sectors.

He emphasised that the ultimate goal was to ensure that all federal tertiary hospitals attain full digital status while encouraging subnational governments to adopt the same standard, which he said would strengthen patient care and streamline record-keeping nationwide.