Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris
Martins Ifijeh
Health commissioners of Lagos, Ogun and Kwara State has advocated for proper financing of the healthcare, as well as health reform that would make the country’s health sector the envy of the world.
According to Lagos State’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, the role of proper healthcare financing can not be over emphasised, adding that capacity building and health reforms were key to achieving the desired goal for the sector.
He said stakeholders need to pressure the government to fund healthcare and ensure the sector was reformed.
Idris, who spoke in Lagos during PharmAccess Strategy Day on Nigeria, tagged; ‘Making health markets work for low-income people in Nigeria’ noted that the major problem with the sector lies with those who run the country’s health system, stressing that many lacked the capacity to function effectively, adding that many of them were not computer literates, hence would be unable to move with the times
For Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, Dr Ipaye, poor funding of healthcare was one of the primary issue affecting the growth of the sector, advising that the Federal Government should invest in the sector. “The present three percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to healthcare is poor. There should be more funding,” he added.
Dr. Ipaye explained that it was impossible for the healthcare system to develop if the central government get 52 per cent of the revenue and the remaining 48 per cent shared between all states and local government, adding that another problem facing the healthcare system was the low capacity of curriculum from every practitioner.
The Commissioner for Health, Kwara State represented by Dr. Omar Ibrahim Hassan, also added that the major problem facing the healthcare is funding, He mentioned that Kwara State have about 400 healthcare centres, 14 general hospitals, three specialist hospitals, yet only 140,000 out of three million have access to healthcare services.
On her part, the Country Director, PharmAccess Foundation, Njide Ndili said her organisation was interested in increasing access to inclusive quality health care for low income communities in Nigeria.
According to her, lack of access to inclusive quality healthcare was one of the primary challenges facing the country. This, she said, was in spite of the efforts being undertaken by stakeholders in the industry. Adding that the programme was organised to facilitate discuss among key players to get response from stakeholders, long standing partners, new and potential partners on how best to deliver healthcare to Nigerians.
