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IF the Federal Government goes ahead with plans it has so far made, apex public health institutions like the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu, University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria, among others, will be put up for sale or rather privatisation, soon.nBut health workers have rejected such plans. Last week, they, excluding medical doctors, petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over the plans to privatise the health sector and vowed to resist what they have called “a version of reforms in healthcare that are self-serving in terms of their narrow commercial interests and those of foreign pay-masters.”
The plan by the Federal Government to ‘sell’ public health institutions was confirmed in a document prepared by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) in November 2014 titled “Recommendations for a National Policy on Incentivising Healthcare Investments. ”Because of the success recorded by reforms in the telecom, energy and banking sectors, advocates of the sale option believe it will bring in additional private capital that will encourage better quality care at the lowest cost and improved benefits to all stakeholders in the sector.
Universal Health Coverage – President Buhari’s opportunity to become a national hero
This week’s guest blog comes from Robert Yates, an internationally recognized expert on progressive health financing. He works for Chatham House, the international affairs “Think-tank” based in London. He was one of the speakers at the Future of Health Conference held on June 18 in Abuja. Far from being a lame-duck, Barack Obama is having an extraordinarily successful second term as President of the United States, to the extent that he is being heralded as one of the most consequential Presidents in US history.
A number of domestic and foreign policy successes have been responsible for this transformation, but one triumph appears to have singled him out for greatness – his universal health reforms. “Obama Gains Vindication and Secures Legacy With Health Care Ruling” trumpeted the New York Times on June 25th after the US Supreme Court voted in favour of preserving the President’s pioneering health reforms. It is now widely recognized that President Obama will go down in history as a national hero for bringing healthcare to the uninsured in America.
The reality of the Residency Card, otherwise called Kaadi Igbe Ayo, has dawned on Ondo State residents as they now need it to access key health care facilities. Particularly, pregnant women who want to enjoy free medical services at the Mother and Child Hospital and the Abiye Safe Motherhood Programme, among others, will now require the card to do so. Before the recent inauguration of the card by Governor Olusegun Mimiko administration, the government’s free medical services were said to be enjoyed mostly by non-residents and those who were not paying their taxes. But the new development would put a check to this.
In his speech at the event, Mimiko said the new initiative was to facilitate the identification of all residents of the state in a bid to deliver to them, the social and welfare programmes as contained in the 12-point agenda of his administration. According to him, it will serve as the ticket for the residents to access and benefit from many of the infrastructural facilities of the state government. The Adegbimile Cultural Centre Hall, Akure, venue of the ceremony, received people from all walks of life, who witnessed the inauguration, while learning more about the importance of the card.
WINIFRED OGBEBO writes on the turn of events around the imposter who paraded himself as a medical doctor in the Federal Ministry of Health for several years as justice gradually catches up with him The long arm of the law is gradually catching up with Martins Okpeh Ugwu, who reigned like a supremo in the Federal Ministry of Health where he functioned as a ‘medical doctor’ for more than nine years. The holy book’s admonition that the wicked will never go unpunished is being fulfilled right before his very eyes.
He was arraigned almost a month ago at an Abuja high court on a five-count charge bordering on fraud and deceit. That the 44-year old secondary school certificate holder paraded himself as a medical doctor for nine whole years and even rose to become the chairman of a branch of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA before he was detected remains a shock which many people are yet to recover from. An indigene of Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State and father of five children, Ugwu had stolen the medical and academic credentials of his childhood friend, Dr. George Davidson, a medical doctor practising in Jos and used them to secure employment in the Federal Ministry of Health.
Sokoto State governor Aminu Tambwal has disclosed that his administration has conluded plans to introduce the state’s version of the National Health insurance Sheme (NHIS) to enable citizens of the state to enjoy healthcare services. But the governor said that until its formal introduction, wide consultations on the position of Islam on health insurance would be undertaken with religious scholars and legal experts. Tambuwal made this known at the weekend when he received in audience, the officials of the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) in Sokoto.
He said the consultations became necessary so as to mobilise all stakeholders, and the people of the state, in order to ensure the success of the project. The governor disclosed that some aspects of the state’s laws would have to be amended to accommodate the scheme. He commended the NHIS for introducing the programme in the state pointing out that it would bring healthcare services closer to the people.To that end, Tambuwal pledged to allocate a plot of land in Sokoto town to the NHIS for the building of its model office as requested.
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) on Friday sealed 148 medicine shops in Cross River for unauthorised sale of drugs. Mr Stephen Esumobi, Deputy Director and Head of Enforcement, PCN, Abuja, made this known during a press conference in Calabar. He said the action was taken as part of measures to ensure that only quality drugs are sold to members of the public. According to him, the patent medicine shops were also closed for operating without the supervision of a pharmacist, poor storage conditions of drugs and low education of medicine vendors, among others.
Esumobi said that the enforcement was carried out after series of reports of the activities of unregistered premises, which engage in the illegal sale of medicines in the state. He added that some of the registered premises were selling beyond the approved list laid down by PCN. According to him, PCN is charged with the responsibility of regulating and controlling the education, training and practice of pharmacy in all ramifications as established by the PCN Act 2004.
The Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) on Friday renewed its commitment to eradicating illegal laboratories and improving service delivery. Prof. Anthony Emeribe, Registrar of the council, said this in an interview with the News agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. He said the council has established a National Corrective Action team to follow up on laboratories to ensure accurate lab result and quality service delivery. Emeribe explained that the measure was part of the council’s efforts to rid the system of illegal practices, among others.
He further said that the team was charged with the responsibility to follow up on laboratories that are not turning out accurate results. The registrar, who decried inaccurate laboratory results turn out from some laboratories, added that the measure would steer such lab to rise up to their responsibilities of quality result. He explained that quality healthcare services commenced from lab result, saying that when a laboratory produce inaccurate results it would deny the patients of efficient and quality healthcare services.
NMA Promises Free Services On Sanitation Days, Tambuwal Pledges Cash Rewards
The Sokoto State Chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA) has promised to provide free medical services to people taking part in the environmental sanitation in the state. The Chairman, NMA in the state, Dr Abdulgafar Jimoh, stated this in a statement issued in Sokoto on Sunday. According to him, the gesture is aimed at complementing the efforts of the state government to rid the state of filth. ” The programme will in no small measure improve on the health of the citizenry as most of the communicable diseases are associated with poor sanitation and poor personal hygiene. “We wish to encourage the Tambuwal’s administration to maintain and sustain this public health initiative.
”It will certainly reduce communicable and water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and malaria which are among the major public health problems in our society. “We wish to assure the state government of continuous support in developing the health sector. “A clean environment is a necessary requirement to a healthy life,” he was quoted in the statement.Meanwhile, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has commended the people for turning out in large number to participate in the Saturday environmental sanitation across the state.
The Nigerian Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the injustice in the health sector.The association made the call in a communique forwarded to our correspondent by its Vice-Chairman, Mr. Kingsley Amibor, on Tuesday. Members of the association in Lokoja, Kogi State, at a conference entitled, “Transforming Hospital and Administrative Pharmacy Practice for Improved Healthcare Delivery.” According to the association, the Federal Ministry of Health and other health institutions in the country have been denying its members key positions.
It stated, “We have appraised the incessant spate of industrial unrests within the Nigerian health sector and traced its origin to the hegemony of injustice perpetrated by one group of health professionals perennially. “These professionals use the instruments of offices of their privileged members in high places to seek favours. “We, therefore, call on the Federal Government under the leadership President Muhammadu Buhari, to demonstrate that it has the political will to redress the glaring cases of injustice and impunity that have become the hallmark of the health sector.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has honoured the memory of Nigeria’s late Ebola doctor, Stella Adadevoh.
Written by Super User
Dr Adadevoh died on August 19, 2015, after contracting the disease in a bid to keep index patient, Patrick Sawyerconfined to the First Consultant Hospital in Lagos. More...
ORTHODONTISTS under the aegis of Nigerian Association of Orthodontists (NAO) have decried a situation where there are only 39 registered members and 4,600 dentists for a population of 170 million people. Top members of the Association in a chat with journalists in Lagos recently said the situation in Nigeria where there is one orthodontist to four million people is in contrast to the United States where there are about 9,000 orthodontists serving a population of 310 million people, which is about one orthodontist to 35,000 people.
Faced with a plethora of petitions from members of the public alleging poor implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called on the Federal Government to review the Scheme to address some noticeable challenges. The Rights Commission has disclosed its intention to invite the leadership of the scheme to explain why beneficiaries were experiencing difficulties in accessing medical services. Executive Secretary of the Commission, Bem Angwe, made the call yesterday in a chat with journalists at the Commission headquarters.
Health workers in Nigeria waste thousands of expensive malaria drugs prescribing them to patients who do not have malaria, a new research by experts at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has revealed. About 5,000 health workers working in public health facilities, pharmacies and drug stores from 40 communities in Enugu State were involved in the research. According to the study, patients are often given malaria drugs based on their signs and symptoms, contrary to standard recommendations by the World Health Organisation that patients’ blood should be tested for the presence of malaria parasites before confirmed cases are treated with Artemisin-based Combination Therapy.
Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) have revealed that an estimated 1.5 million children around the world still die each year of diseases that could be prevented by vaccines that already exist just as 1 in 5 children still do not receive routine life-saving immunizations. According to a statement from the organization, people who delay or refuse vaccines for themselves or their children are presenting a growing challenge for countries seeking to close the immunization gap. In a special issue of the journal Vaccine, guest-edited by WHO and published last week, experts review the role of vaccine hesitancy in limiting vaccine coverage and explore strategies to address it. Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of safe vaccines despite availability of vaccination services.
