80% Nigerians to have health services near their homes – FG

Effectively combating health care challenges of many Nigerians, particularly those without access to insurance is, according to stakeholders in the health sector, achievable. But this is only when concerted efforts are made to fully implement Universal Health Coverage, a scheme that is targeted at providing full and equal access to healthcare to people and communities in various parts of the country.

On the importance of universal health coverage Isaac Adewole, the health minister said yesterday at a two-day National Health Dialogue held in Abuja, that health is a basic human right which is not negotiable.

He also reiterated the commitment of government in provision of nationwide healthcare coverage, saying “the goal is that 80% of the country will have access to health services near their houses”.

Adewole stressed the need to revitalise the primary health care, noting that the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) are meant to handle simple health cases which are often taken to the secondary and tertiary health care centres, whereas they are meant to handle serious issues such as cancer.

“We are trying to reverse this so that 80% of everybody in this country will get close access to a PHC, 10 per cent secondary and 10 per cent tertiary hospital and we need to replicate this in all the states.

According to Adewole, the health ministry is working towards ensuring free surgery scheme for poor people across the country, and there is also a need to change functionality of the country’s health care system.

“Most of the money we get from the states is invested in paying salaries. We need to invest more in providing health delivery in the state. This dialogue will work out a plan on how to handle health service funding. The health service act has been implemented, what remains is the funding” said Adewole

Faisai Shuaib, Director, Primary Health Care Development Agency while speaking on ‘primary healthcare under one roof as a mechanism for delivering universal health coverage’ criticised the poor coverage recorded in immunisation across the country.

“We only have 33% coverage in routine immunisation. It is bad that we can only vaccinate 33% of our children. What happens to the rest? This is why we are engaging with states to find solutions for immunisation for every child in Nigeria,” said Shuaib.