Determined to improve the health indices of Nigerians through universal health coverage, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has called for a wide range of reforms in the new dispensation to offer much better and robust therapeutic outcomes for consumers of health in Nigeria.“We note with disdain that prescriptions are non-existent in the private sector of our healthcare practice to the detriment of patients.“Community pharmacists as part of the agenda of the newly elected National Executive Council (NEC) is already mobilizing its membership especially in Lagos and Abuja to kick-start a new labeling initiative geared towards optimizing drug delivery in conformity with good pharmacy practice.”
The pharmacist argued that if Rwanda has an enrollee base of 92 per cent, Ghana 60 per cent and Nigeria has about four per cent after eight years of implementation of the NHIS, then it is obvious that the Frankenstein monster called the Nigerian factor is at work yet again in an endeavor which optimists had imagined would bring far-reaching reforms to the totality of the healthcare industry in the country.
Adekola said perhaps, the biggest of the assaults on the NHIS remains the implementation of the unlawful concept of global capitation. For the records, the only lawful payment mechanisms in the statutes (Decree 35 of 1999) manuals and guideline of the NHIS are capitations, fee for service, Case payment, and per diem. He said the global capitation concept was a shortcut devised by Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) for administrative convenience to suit them but which shortchanges other key stakeholders. Global Capitation involves payment of capitation and all elements of other payment modes meant for other providers (secondary and tertiary) to the primary provider.
The pharmacist said this system compromises service delivery to the enrollee because he is not guaranteed the best drugs or diagnostic services since the primary provider who has been paid upfront for these services tries to maximize his profit from the advanced payment.
Adekola said the ACPN despite these challenges in the NHIS observes the new resolve to achieve results by the incumbent Executive Secretary of the NHIS, which encourages the Association to seek a new partnership that can work maximally in the public interest.
The pharmacist called on the secretariat of the NHIS to open borders of restriction in the running of Social Health Insurance as witnessed through some State statutes (Ondo State is an example), which now gives opportunities to all health professionals to excel in service rendition.“The Association of Community Pharmacists assures the consuming public that we shall energize the entire health community for the sole purpose of fulfilling potentials as we settle into office in the days ahead,” he said.
Source: Guardian
