Centre decries poor maternal health funding

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has flayed inadequate budgetary allocation to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) in the country.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja, Programme Officer, good governance, Victor Emejuiwe said it was responsible for the high maternal and child mortality and morbidity in the country.

He said there is no budget for the treatment of Vesico Vaginal Fistula ( VVF) in the 2017 proposed health budget.

He said about 800,000 women and girls are reported to be suffering from VVF in Nigeria, and treating each patient at a cost of N100,000 for surgery, remediation and rehabilitation will cost a total o f N80 billion.

“The expectation and Civil Society Organisation (CSO) recommendation from their contribution to the Medium Term Sector Strategies (MTSS) is that it can be phased over a period of four years at N20billion per year. But this is missing in the 2017 estimates,” he said.

The centre called on the executive arm of government to mainstream maternal, newborn and child health and other health issues in the work and programming of other Ministries , Departments and Agencies, so that sensitization leading to health information accessibility will be used to improve standards and indicators.

It also called on the legislature to disaggregate the allocation for MNCH in the vote in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as well as ensue that current and capital votes for NHIS are made available to the public in the budget.

Other areas of concern raised by the centre include the non inclusion of the basic health care provision fund in the 2017 proposed budget , and inadequate funding for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/ AIDS, local production of vaccines and revitalisation of primary health care centres among others.