*WHO, UNICEF seek improved primary healthcare
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire yesterday said the federal government was currently pushing for a law on a mandatory health insurance scheme in Nigeria, as part of reforms as well as to revolutionising funding in the sector.
Ehanire said this in his address at a special session of the National Council on Health (NCH) meeting which held in Abuja.
This is just as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have stressed the need to channel more funds towards the improvement of facilities at the various primary healthcare centres in the country.
Minister said the government was implementing an innovative digital health technology reforms and building a network of National Primary Health Care centers across the country to take healthcare delivery to the grassroots.
“We have come a long way in expectation of a law for mandatory health insurance in Nigeria, a critical health sector reform to revolutionise funding and undergoing innovative digital health technology reforms. Side by side with this, is the network of National Primary Health Care centers to take care to the grassroots,” he said.
Ehanire said models of the new Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) designs had been sent to all state governors adding that each PHC would have staff quarters, assured water supply, solar powered aggregates and a sound complement of human resource for health.
He said that PHCs are the most important building blocks of the country’s health system and should be prioritised by all states as the platform attain the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
With regard to the advent of the new Covid-19 variant -Omicron, Ehanire said the country must have to strengthen its health security architecture to ensure that it was prepared at all times to detect and respond, in the interest of the health of the populace.
The minister said strong and resilient health systems remained the best lines of defence to pandemics and other health threats.
He also said vaccines remained the surest and most cost-effective measure to contain the pandemic so far.
Speaking on efforts and achievements of the current administration to reposition the health sector, Ehanire said the sector has benefited from the several interventions undertaken to check the spread of the pandemic in the country.
He added that benefits from Covid-19 pandemic included the construction of a total of 50 oxygen plants by the federal government and Global Fund, as well as the importation of thousands of oxygen cylinders to make oxygen available to all hospitals, as well as the setting up of the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (NEMSAS), an innovative care system that was intended to make medical services available at the site of medical emergency with a phone call.
Ehanire said over the coming four days, the meeting would engage in technical sessions where memorada would be considered and approvals sought for implementation of resolutions reached.
While speaking at the event, UNICEF Country Representative,
Dr. Eduardo Celades said meeting would provide the much-needed opportunity for Nigeria to holistically review the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and response on the health sector and propose appropriate strategies for building back better from the pandemic.
He listed some of the challenges Nigeria should address to include persistent decline in health expenditure as a proportion of GDP from 1.20 per cent in 2004, to only 0.58 per cent in 2018, inadequate financing of primary healthcare services at service delivery point and the current allocation of N1.5 million per ward under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund which it said was sub-optimal.
On his part, WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, said COVID-19 provided Nigeria a unique opportunity for a thorough evaluation of existing resources and mechanisms and for it to build back better towards a more resilient system for the future.
