With about 3 months to the general elections, Nigerian citizens have been encouraged to lay emphasis on health financing and security.
This advice was one of the major recommendations offered by health experts and officials at a health dialogue session held in Abuja. The session themed “Primary Health Care Financing; Role of State and Non-state Actors,” was organised by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development in partnership with Premium Times.
Participants of the session affirmed that Nigerians at all levels must begin to push for healthcare as a priority and ensure accountability from relevant government agencies, noting that the health sector needs to commence utilizing diverse methods and platforms to get the needed results.
In her presentation on “PHC Financing: the Role of Government in Achieving Optimum PHC Performance”, Ngozi Nwosu, a Director at the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), noted that the complex and fragmented institutional arrangements between the local, state, and federal governments constrain the delivery of public health services in Nigeria.
Nwosu revealed further that the NPHCDA initiated the Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) in 2011 to address the constrain and unify all structures and programmes at the state and local government levels. An act that was geared towards ensuring efficient service delivery for proper accountability within a decentralised system.
The director also pointed out that the majority of the country’s health expenditure is funded through out-of-pocket payments with little financial protection and inequitable access to health services.
On the new health insurance act, the experts agreed that universal health coverage cannot be achieved through private health insurance alone but through social insurance, adding that there should be financial support for collaborative research from the government to the academic sector in the new Health Insurance Act.
They, however, suggested the need for intentional community participation and education in the new Act, as the community needs to get involved to institute accountability mechanisms.
The stakeholders also asserted that to make PHCs work, the government must ensure adequate welfare and remuneration of service providers at the grassroots.
The session had in attendance representatives of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), World Health Organisation (WHO), Federal Ministry of Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, International Human Rights, National Youth Inclusive Initiative (NYII), Connected Development (CODE), Electoral Hub and New Life Mental Health Relief and Care Initiative, among many other participants.
