New Telegraph

Making health, national security issue

Last Saturday, Nigeria marked the 2020 Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day during which concerns were raised over the poor state of the health care delivery system in the country. REGINA OTOKPA reports

 

About a week before the Universal Health Coverage Day, Nigerians had an opportunity to assess the state of the Primary Health Care (PHC) system in the country.

 

The review returned a verdict that was not palatable. The Primary Healthcare Centres which ought to be the foundation of the health care delivery system were not only inadequate in terms of numbers in ratio to population, they were ill-equipped and under utilised.

 

Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA,), Dr Faisal Shuaib who raised the concerns during the presentation of a roadmap for the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, said rather than have the primary health care system cater for 70 percent of the population as originally designed, only about 20 percent of healthcare burden was at the primary level.

 

He disclosed that a significant burden of healthcare has been transfered to the secondary and tertiary tiers of the health system.

 

According to him, the tertiary healthcare system was designed to cater for only three percent of the population, the secondary healthcare system to cater for at least 27 percent of the population, leaving the bulk of health care delivery to the primary health care system.

 

His words: “Most times we find that the primary health care centres are moribund causing a burden on the secondary healthcare system.” Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire lamented the poor number of Primary Health Care (PHC) centres in the country which he said was barely one third of the centres required for the provision of quality and efficient services.

 

He reiterated government’s commitment to address the challenges in order to enable Nigeria achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by bringing health closer to the people. Taking a cue from this ugly scenario painted by those managing the healthcare delivery system, the Nigerian Youths Champions for Universal Health Coverage (NYC4UHC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to regard health as a national security in need of urgent attention.

 

The youths who made the call on Saturday in Abuja during the commemoration of the 2020 Universal Health Coverage (UHC)  Day, raised concerns over the poor health insurance penetration, high rate of out of pocket expenses for health and poor budgetary allocation to health. Addressing newsmen, Acting Chair Person NYC4UHC, Pitan Oyeyemi who made reference to the several constraints presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, stressed that every Nigerian including the youths, must have access to quality essential health services.

 

“NYC4UHC understands that there are a lot of needs to be met at this critical time across all sectors in our nation due to the pandemic.

 

“However, we urge President Muhammadu Buhari, the Health Minister, Finance Minister, Budget and Planning Minister as well as other relevant agencies to see health as a national security issue that needs urgent attention so that our nation can emerge stronger than the pandemic,” she said.

 

The group which called for clear provisions and inclusion of the youths as beneficiaries of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), equally sought for representation in all high level committees in the various health platforms including the  Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.

 

National Coordinator, Africa Health Budget Network, (AHBN) Dr. Aminu Magashi who appealed to the Federal Government to engage the youths in all its programmes, said youths should be considered as front liners in the COVID-19 vaccine expected in the country in the first quarter of 2021.

 

Magashi further raised concerns over the lack of basic infrastructures especially running water at Primary Health Care (PHC) Centres and a vibrant health insurance scheme at the federal and state levels.

 

“The primary health care centres nationwide lack functioning water system. We call on state governors, National Assembly, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA to provide water systems in all the PHCs.

 

When there is water it takes care of a whole lot of things and provides a lot of services.

 

“We should be covered by insurance; this will ensure we don’t pay so much for health. NHIS must work at an optimal level, the state’s insurance scheme must provide access to everybody at the state level to  ensure every youth access health care without financial hardship.

 

Chief Executive Officer, Vaccine Network for Disease Control, Chika Offor, charged Nigerian youths to be advocates of change, by monitoring services at PHCs, to ensure every Nigerian child have access to quality health care.

 

Meanwhile, a representative of Civil Societies Coalition , Prof. Oladipo Ladipo, has challenged government to focus more attention on prevention management, rather than curative options to healthcare. Ladipo also stressed the need for an increase in budgetary allocations especially for family planning.

 

“When we focus on preventing some of the diseases, we will have less work to do in the health sector. We do not have to spend much resources on treatment of diseases. “The health care sector in a country is a means of determining how developed the economy of the country is at a given point in time. If we look at developed economy they always prioritize health.

 

The government is always responsible for health care management. In our country, the approach is different, we need to be proactive.”

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