As part of measures to bring life to ailing Nigeria’s health system, the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria (AMSN) has offered some tips that could help the new coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammadu Ali Pate, to achieve great result in his new role.
A not-for-profit professional body comprising leading medical experts in Nigeria and of Nigerian extraction listed the tips at its brainstorming session over the poor state of the health sector in the country during the week.
In a statement signed and made available to Saturday Tribune by its President, Professor Oladapo Ashiru, a consultant endocrinologist and first black person to become secretary-general of the International Federation of Fertility Societies(IFFS), the group declared that Nigeria, indeed, has a weak health system and the condition is really suppressing its efforts in achieving any of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets, especially the Universal Health Coverage.
According to the Academy, the infant mortality rate in the country is among the highest globally, and the country also has high burdens of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, child and maternal mortality, poor life expectancy which is below 55 years, and many more.
The group observed that the country is in this sorry state because of many factors including low investment in the health sector, corruption, non-accountability and lack of political will by successive leaders to give due attention to the sector.
The results of these, according to the group, is manifested in the high cost of healthcare, medical tourism and the brain drain of health workers, among others.
The group explained that even though there have been some policies and programmes, structures, strategies and activities in place before now, they are simply not well-implemented let alone deliver good health outcomes.
The Academy, therefore, urged the minister and his team to first, appraise the system from all angles and reconsider the implementation of some of the policies and programmes considered to be good for the country and also the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Health Sector Reform submitted five months ago.
The group listed some of these policies and plans including 2014 National Health Act, 2016 National Health Policy, National Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP 2), Primary Healthcare Under One Roof (PHCUOR), National Health Insurance Authority Ac as well as the National Drug Policy, among others
“We want the minister to also institutionalize research culture in health policies by ensuring that government is adequately funding health research and development, increasing health budgets and for specific targets, embarking on aggressive three-tier health investments and human resource optimization to reverse medical tourism, expanding primary healthcare reach, water and sanitation and tackle corruption and so forth,” the academy added.
“If all these are done, Nigeria’s health sector will certainly move forward appreciably and that will equally rub off on other sectors of the economy.”
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then