Experts want new health minister to fix infrastructure, improve healthcare delivery
Medical practitioners want the new minister who will be appointed to run the current Nigeria’s healthcare system to fix infrastructural deficits in the sector and improve on public healthcare delivery across the country.
Also, they want the new minister to increase practitioners’ welfare to stem the massive migration of Nigerian doctors and improve on the annual budgetary allocation to healthcare systems in the country.
They noted that the issues highlighted are not just a problem for people in resource limited settings but a national issue which must be urgently addressed.
“We believe that it is time to invest more in improvement of the healthcare service delivery processes in Nigeria; the new minister should be someone who actually have experience and look at the healthcare system holistically,” said an health analyst who those not want his name mentioned on print.
According to him, the new
minster is expected to look at the healthcare sector at different levels, compelling health actors to value and trust each other and play the role well as mentors and advocators.
“The new ministers’ knowledge must have effecting on the sector and healthcare generally to get a good system,” the analyst said.
Similarly, Ademola Aina, chairman, HCPAN Lagos said that he expects the new minister to improve the public healthcare delivery across the country.
“Hospitals over all the country are not hospitals’ including the tertiary institutions in terms of infrastructures, we need more facilitates and also strategies to put increase in speed of the health insurance system in other for Nigerians to have access to care,” said Aina.
Doyin Odubanjo, chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter advised the new minister to the factors fuelling the massive migration of Nigerian doctors, saying that human resource in the sector should be given adequate attention.
“Nigeria has one of the largest stocks of human resources for health in Africa, things are really so bad and medical personnel’s are leaving in high numbers, currently at the moment we have an emergency, we expect the minister to fix this first,” Odubanjo said.
He added that the main issues underlying human resources for health challenges in Nigeria are insufficiently resourced and neglected health systems; poor human resources planning and management practices and structures and unsatisfactory working conditions to mention few.
Nigeria’s health expenditure as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) averaged 3.4 percent between 2007 and 2016, compared with South Africa (6.5 per cent) and Kenya (4.5 per cent), according to data sourced from the World Bank.
According to the World Health Organization ( WHO), Nigeria has one of the lowest doctors to population ratio in Africa.
A poll citing the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria ( MDCN), reported that there are about 72,000 nationallyregistered Nigerian doctors, with only 35,000 practising incountry. Factoring this figure with national population estimates, there is a deficit of over 260,000 doctors in Nigeria and a minimum of 10,605 new doctors need to be recruited annually to meet global targets.
“Political will is one of the bases to successful healthcare system, the minister is expected to put more effort for the increase of budgetary allocation to the health sector, in order to stem the tide of increase in mortality and morbidity rate” Larne Yusuf, a medical practitioner said.
However, analysing the plan to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare system, experts say the new minister could apply the six building blocks recommended by the World Health Organisation ( WHO) which includes Good service delivery comprises quality, access, safety and coverage, a well-performing workforce consists of human resources management, skills and policies and also a well performing system that ensures the production, analysis, dissemination and use of timely and reliable information.
Others are procurement and supply programs needed to ensure equitable access, assured quality and cost- effective use, a good health financing system raises adequate funds for health, protects people from financial catastrophe, allocates resources, and purchases good and services in ways that improve quality, equity, and efficiency, and effective leadership and governance ensures the existence of strategic policy frameworks, effective oversight and coalition-building, provision of appropriate incentives, and attention to system design, and accountability.
In the pharmaceutical aspect of healthcare, the cost of drugs also makes it difficult for many people to get treatment. 70 per cent of drugs used in Nigeria are imported, implying the already financially challenged Nigerians have to a pay premium for most medicines.
However, Lessons learned from global strategies indicate that the role of multi-sectoral partnerships, particularly the private sector at country level, is a critical precursor to accelerating progress towards improving healthcare delivery.