Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described the funding for public healthcare in Nigeria as being at scandalously low level.
“What we have seen through the years, is a scandalously low level of funding for public health in Nigeria and healthcare in particular.The levels of public sector investment in healthcare in our recent past has in no way reflected our earnings, or high oil earnings, especially between 2010 and 2015 (that was when we earned the highest in oil prices).”
professor Osinbajo, who spoke today, Thursday, at the 58th Annual delegates meeting and Science Conference of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), in Abuja, the nation’s Federal Capital Territory, noted that the devastating insurgency in the Northeast, which succeeded in bringing an already tottering health system in that part of the country to its knees, with the attendant impact on immunization levels and the availability of medical personnel are the added burden on the healthcare system.
According to him, there are some other issues that consumed a substantial part of the government’s attention, saying that such issues were amongst them: “the problems with the healthcare sector, poor funding and of course, the Northeast and the threat of the spread of some diseases, some of those diseases that had been under control on account of the fact that it had been extremely difficult to reach some parts of the Northeast until a couple of years ago.”
Osinbajo however, expessed happiness to learn that Muhammadu Buhari’s government has been able to stabilize the dire situation it inherited and that the government’s short-term Special Intervention Programme, and the medium-term Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), have helped to set the economy solidly on the path of recovery and growth.
“The insurgency in the Northeast has abated considerably. Just this week in fact, Borno State celebrated its first public May Day celebrations in Maiduguri in five years.
“Having identified healthcare reform as one of the major drivers of Nigeria’s economic development, and under the able leadership of the Hon Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, our administration has prioritized basic healthcare delivery services for Nigerians, through the revitalization of primary healthcare and retooled the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency for better performance.
“President Buhari personally launched a pilot of this revitalization programme at the Primary Healthcare Centre in Kuchigoro village here in the FCT, last year. Also in line with this, in 2016, we disbursed US$1.5 million to each of Nigeria’s 36 State Governments and the FCT, to support them in strengthening their primary healthcare system, as part of the Saving One Million Lives Performance for Results Programme.
“Another round of funding will shortly be disbursed to performing States based on results from an assessment of the impact of the first round of funding.
“Just last month, we launched, in the presence of the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund. Implementation of the fund will soon commence as a pilot in three States, Abia, Niger and Osun States, with plans to scale up next year.”
Professor Osinbajo said that in terms of public health, the proactive and commendable effort of the Federal Ministry of Health, through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), in coordination with the national response to recent outbreaks of infectious diseases like the Lassa Fever, Cholera/Acute Watery Diarrhoea and Cerebrospinal Meningitis is worthy of note.
“We expect that the passage of the NCDC Establishment Bill by the National Assembly will further strengthen the agency and provide a smoother environment for their operations.
“Through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), we have launched an aggressive strategic plan, to attain 80 percent immunization coverage nationally by the year 2020, because it is clear that we must improve levels of immunisation coverage in Nigeria.
“We have also, through our National Sovereign Investment Authority, recently invested $20 million in three of our Tertiary Hospitals – Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, and the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Abia State – to establish world-class cancer treatment and medical diagnostic facilities. We intend to follow these with targeted interventions in the treatment of heart and kidney disorders.
“Again, in line with our overall economic development plans, we are working hard on incentivizing private sector investment in healthcare. Already the CBN hospital intervention fund has helped fund some hospitals that have shown track records for game changing activity in healthcare. We believe that the next phase of healthcare development in Nigeria is going to depend a great deal on technology and innovation, which explains why we are paying a great deal of attention to the remarkable innovations of our bludgeoning tech sector.
“Many young people are solving huge problems in Medicine and other aspects of our lives with a great deal of creativity. In the medical sector, we have LifeBank founded by Temi Giwa’s and Ola Orekunrin’s Flying Doctors. These two are two start-ups using technology and innovation to fill critical gaps in our healthcare industry.
“LifeBank works on the blood shortage problem in hospitals and save lives by speeding up blood donations and delivery to hospitals in Lagos. Their LifeBank app connects donors and hospitals and they ensure delivery of blood within 55 minutes. Ola Orekunrin’s Flying Doctors, is the first air operated emergency medical service in West Africa. Her company provides air ambulances from a pool of 20 aircrafts and highly trained medical personnel for emergency evacuations.
“ Recently, we ran a Makeathon from our Northeast Humanitarian Technology Hub. It is one of the technology hubs we are developing as a government, in providing innovation to solve problems that have arisen in the Northeast. We’ve had hundreds of innovations proposing highly innovative solutions to public health problems. These are young Nigerians proposing ground-breaking solutions. We intend to engage even more robustly with our technology community on an ongoing basis. We believe a lot of the answers to some of our public health problems; rely on the creativity of these young men and women.
“Our Social Investment Programme, through its Home-Grown School Feeding Scheme, is investing heavily in improving health outcomes for primary school children, by tackling stunting and malnutrition. We are working closely with the Partnership for Child Development (PCD), a research body based at London’s Imperial College, and with a track record of supporting interventions that translate into healthier and better-educated children.” [myad]
