Chioma Umeha
To address shortage of infrastructure, health
personnel and equipment at the
Nigerian primary health care system (PHC) a not for profit organisation, the
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre
(CISLAC) has said that revitalisation of primary health facilities
should be made priority by state governments in order to achieve universal
health coverage.
Canvassing for this in Lagos, Mallam Auwal Ibrahim
Musa, the Executive Director of CISLAC, said “the situation of primary health
care in Nigeria worsens, as financial and political commitment from the
government is lacking.”
Musa also noted “In cases where there have been
financial pronouncements, they have been partially or entirely not
implemented. Inadequate funding
and non-commitment of state governors and local government authorities to
provide skilled manpower at the primary health care centers impede adequate
health intervention.
“Thankfully, health is on the concurrent list of
the government. This signifies that if indeed the government wants to pay
attention to the prevalent health condition, it can easily be achieved through
serious implementation of health policies and redeeming of pledges at all
levels.”
The CISLAC boss, who was represented by the
programme officer, Mr. Murtala Muhammad, commended the Saving One Million Lives
Initiative initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017 was geared towards
revitalising over 10,000 primary healthcare centres across the country.
Similarly, Dr. Jibril Mohammad Bashar, from health
policy and systems development unit, department of community medicine, Ahmadu
Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, in his presentation, “Financing for Primary
Health Care: Harnessing Domestic Funding Enabling Policies And
Legislation,” called for the 15
per cent of national budget to health
Dr. Bashar explained that in order to attain a
meaningful impact in the health sector in Nigeria, government needs to invest a
bench mark of 15 per cent of its national budget to health.
He said, though the Lagos state government is one
of the best in health investment with N6,617 per person annually, it still has
a funding gap of N64.2 billion, especially in its 2018 budget.
In his remarks on health care financing, Dr Bashar
said that there should be appropriate financing mechanism that will provide
sufficient financial protection so that no individual household is impoverished
because of the need to use health care services.
He said the World Health Organisation (WHO)
reports that Nigeria’s out of pocket spending for health is 95.7 per cent
instead of the recommended benchmark of 20 per cent that means Nigeria is 75.7
per cent away from the acceptable benchmark.
Dr. Bashar said, “Nigeria has to prioritise public
spending in health according to its own morbidity, mortality and availability
of funds as a great degree of impact can be made in making accessible health
intervention at a low cost through sustainable domestic funding.
