Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, announced on Tuesday that the federal government is planning a comprehensive health policy which will hopefully lift the country’s ailing sector
““This year, government is designing a new health policy deliberately captured to promote the health of Nigerians to accelerate socio-economic development.
“We want to make a statement that when we improve the health of the people, we can engender socio-economic development,” the kin itself stated at a town hall meeting and policy dialogue for good governance jointly organised by the Alumni Association of the National Association of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies) and Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
Adewole signaled that part of that policy is the target to get the Africa’s most populous country end malaria mortality by 2020 as he recalled that attempts had been made in the past twice to develop health policy for the nation.
“We have set some timeframe for ourselves. We are committed to reducing maternal mortality before the life span of this administration.
“We want to end malaria mortality by the end of 2020,’’ he said.
He equally explained that the 2016 budget features three prominent areas in the health sector – immunisation, management of disease outbreak, maternal and child mortality as he assured of government’s commitment to ensure accountability, transparency and reducing inefficiency in the health sector.
Adewole said that the government is also looking beyond the budget, securing a $500 million loan from the World Bank to address maternal and child mortality. But the federal government will partner with the states in utilising the fund, he indicted.
“The loan will be accessible to states but with close assessment and monitoring to ensure its proper usage for maternal health, child birth, malarial, nutrition, immunisation and contraception.
“States that perform well on the indicators will be given more money,’’ he said.
Besides, the minister said the government launched a new programme called “Better Health for All Nigerians’’; an initiative for taking care of the poor people.
He said under the programme, government will offer free surgery to the poor; screen 500,000 for diabetes and hypertension; 40,000 for hepatitis; 40,000 for cervical cancer, and 20,000 for breast cancer.
He said the programme would also be used to handle the nutritional emergency in Borno state.
The health minister further announced that seven tertiary health institutions have been selected for upgrade to be able to handle cancer, renal and cardiac problems, which accounts for most of the ailments for which many patients go abroad to seek medical help.
He was optimistic that this would go a long way to reversing medical tourism which is costing the country over one billion dollars annually.
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