Healthcare Financing experts have called for strategic purchasing to improve health services as this will ensure efficiency in the utilisation of scarce funds and provide real value for money.
The Managing Director of R4D, Dr Cheryl Cashin at the health policy dialogue on strategic purchasing reforms and primary health care financing in Abuja, organised by the Results for Development (R4D), stated that strategic purchasing of health services is not only critical to the attainment of universal health coverage and the effective delivery of services, especially at the primary healthcare level, but it will also ensure that health services will respond to the needs of the target population.
“While the Federal Government needs to increase the budgetary allocation for health, more still needs to be done in how efficiently the funds are spent.
Cashin noted that It is one thing to mobilise resources for health, but it is crucial that these resources that have been mobilised need to be spent appropriately for health value so that more Nigerians or the population at risk will be able to access health care.
“Strategic purchasing helps countries to get more value and more health outcomes for the money that has been put forward for health care.
The representative of Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency(NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, the Team lead of BHCPF, Oritseweyimi Ogbe also said NPHCDA will consider health financing a critical element in ensuring the development of primary health care as a resilient platform.
Ogbe further said that par is actually the key to achieving reinvestment in COVID-19, in the context of the Nigerian state.
“NPHCDA is always pleased to be part of such conversations that will lead towards having this ideal where we have a source of adequate financing for primary health care”.
The Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Prof. Mohammed Sambo, who was represented by the General Manager of Finance and Account at the Authority, John Okoh expressed optimism that in addition to these dialogues, the government also need the institutionalisation of health sector reforms, coordination of all stakeholder efforts, adequate and sustainable financing, political commitment at all levels of government, and strategic harnessing of the potential of the private sector; taking into consideration Nigeria’s local context and peculiarities