What Buhari must do to revamp the health sector

SOON after emerging victorious in the 2015 presidential election,  President-elect Mohammadu Buhari, was immediately taken to task over the fortunes of the nation’s fledging heath sector.

No doubt one of the biggest challenges awaiting the President-elect, is managing the plethora of expectations by the teeming millions of Nigerians concerning virtually every aspect of the nation’s health care delivery system.

Nigerians expect much of the in-coming administration because their (Nigerians) healthcare needs are much. Buhari is not just expected to turn things around, but turn things around fast.

Nigerians  are desirous of healthcare services that are robust,  affordable,  available and accessible, even as they  look forward to a realistic and sustainable national health insurance  scheme that will rescue them from the everlasting bondage of out-of-pocket payment for even the most basic health requirements.

Basic health requirements

The people are tired of endless health worker strikes and perennial health sector crises and expect a permanent solution to the inter and intra professional wranglings.

The reduction of  newborn, infant, maternal and child mortalities, in addition to better health indices and improved overall life expectancy, amongst several others,are high on the list of expectations.

This development is hardly surprising following the long years of decay and decadence that the sector has witnessed.

“As President, Buhari  must work hard to restore public confidence,” said a former President, Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, and Vice President, West African Region of the Commonwealth Medical Association, WAR, Dr. Osahon Enabulele.

Urging  the President-elect and his team to work hard to restore public confidence in governance through institution of an all-inclusive and participatory government, Enabulele gave a retinue of policy changes including adherence to the rule of law, restriction of Government’s funding of travels for foreign medical treatment by political and public office holders, as well as improved political commitment to Nigeria’s health sector.

Included on the list of expectations from Enabulele, is the respect for  fundamental health rights of Nigerians, particularly through strict and committed implementation of the National Health Act, 2014, and institution of globally competitive wages for medical doctors/health professionals backed with a robust and dynamic health human resource development plan, amongst other progressive steps.

In its own contribution, the  Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN,  expressed willingness to partner with the President-elect “to ensure the achievement of good health for all citizens in Nigeria.”

President of the PSN, Olumide Akintayo, called for attention to what he described as the “perennially volatile health sector in Nigeria”, as pertains to the nature of appointment of those who preside over the Federal Ministry of Health.

“In the current dispensation the thrust of the dislocation was the appointment of two members of the same profession in a multi-disciplinary sector to prevail. This was unprecedented and logically the many aberrations that still dot our lives are also unprecedented.”

Akintayo, who urged the President-elect   to be open minded to embrace global realities which have opened up the hitherto restricted borders in healthcare, worried that the norm, today, is to appoint seasoned administrators and managers of cognate experience to run the business of healthcare which is similar to any other business. In an agenda presented to the in-coming President, the PSN is demanding action plans in several areas including Universal Health Coverage – incorporating fully Community Based Social Health Insurance Programme, CBSHIP, a well-defined welfare package for health workers and a robust  Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative for selected services in the health system.

In his views, the PSN spokesperson argued that “for the pharmaceutical sector, government at the centre must come up with reforms that will usher a petrochemical industry which is the precursor for genuine industrial revolution across board.

Other requests include investment in research and development through substantial financial rates for the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, and regular consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders in health notably the professional associations and trade unions to foster unity and harmony as consensus positions can be effectively implemented by government at the centre.

On their own part, members of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, AMLSN,  was optimistic that the President-elect would  appoint credible, competent, unbiased and experienced administrators to lead the Federal Ministry of Health.

Presenting this position, National President and National PRO of the Association respectively, Messrs. Toyosi Raheem and Adeyeye Adetunji Tam,  said such move would put an end to incessant crisis in the health sector in Nigeria.

They recalled that when an experienced, professionally unbiased health economist/administrator was in charge, the health sector in Nigeria ranked 4th in the whole Commonwealth of nations and how, regrettably, decline set in drastically from 1985 soon after Buhari’s exit as the then Head of government.

“Health sector is made up several professional groups all of which have the capacity to perform optimally when given a level playing field, the needed motivation, necessary tools and enabling environments. This will in turn, promote Universal Health Coverage, reduce out of pocket health expenditures for all Nigerians, promote achievement of health related MDGs among others.”

Like the other professional associations, the AMLSN pledged to be readily available and willing to contribute  professionally towards the revamping of the health sector.