Bola Ademola is a trader in Mushin Olosa market in Lagos state and a single mother of six.
Bola who struggles to provide for her family has just been informed that her second daughter has been diagnosed of xxx cancer.
She has been told by an oncologist at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in Idi- araba that her daughter will undergo six rounds of chemotherapy sessions.
Bola had no health insurance to pay for her daughter’s medical care she has to pay from her daily income. She needs at least N250,000 per session.
With support from family and friends as well as selling all she had, Bola popularly called Iya Bola was able to pay for the entire six sessions. But the doctor has stated that the next stage is for a radiotherapy treatment.
Bola is left devastated by the news; she does not have the means of raising the amount needed.
“My daughter is on treatment, we have finished the chemotherapy. My worry now is to raise money for the radiotherapy treatment. Nobody is willing to lend me anymore because I haven’t even paid the loan I took before,” she says with tears flowing down her cheeks.
“I do not want my daughter to die; she is the most intelligent among all my children,” she pleads.
Her case gives an insight into the challenges low income earners face in making out of pocket payments for their medical care.
Currently, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world, with 98 million living in multidimensional or extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Index.
Extreme poverty occurs when a person lives below $1.90 (N684) daily. Unemployment is 23.1 percent while misery index is nearly 45 percent.
These numbers are an indication that over half of the Nigerian population cannot pay their medical bills from out of pocket.
A 2014 study by the World Bank reveal huge health inequality gaps with 95 per cent of Nigerians accessing health care via out-of-pocket payment to meet their health needs. This is not only left with less than 5 percent of Nigerians covered by National Health Insurance Scheme.
Investing in Nigeria health systems is an opportunity to accelerate economic development and growth, contribute to saving millions of lives and moving the country closer to achieving objectives of national poverty reduction strategies.
Even as the country is struggling with depicted infrastructural development, brain drain and low budget funding, earnest efforts by the government and private sector brought the introduction of new and emerging technologies, medicine and services into the sector but medical costs for patients is showing signs in reducing.
The advancement are providing new treatment options and giving hope to people with cancer, chronic medical conditions, and rare, inherited disorders and other health issues. But the challenge of this is clear, patients are faces the challenges of affordability.
The average cost of treating an ailment is still high for an average Nigerian with no medical health insurance cover.
“The private sector has been working hard to help bring down costs while promoting high quality of care. But healthcare in Nigeria is not largely publicly funded, and there are out-of-pocket costs associated with diagnosis, treatment, and survival,” said Larne Yusuf a Lagos based medical Practitioner.
‘This has worsened the level of poverty because too many Nigerians have died due to lack of funds for medical treatment,” Yusuf said.
Speaking on the rise of non-communicable diseases in the country, the experts attributed it to poor feeding pattern and lifestyle of individuals.
Speaking to doctor on duty, who pleaded anonymous, said many of his colleagues in different departments have patients queuing up and when you talk about the increasing number of people coming up with different diagnosis especially the non- communicable disease such as cancer, diabetes and kidney diseases as well as hypertension.
“We see different cases every day, many Nigerians are sick with one illness or the other and the patterns or symptoms are similar,” he said.
“We need to raise more awareness and improve disease management through early detection and prevention. Build the Nigeria’s healthcare capacity and improve access to quality and equitable healthcare solutions,” he said.
BusinessDay investigations show that non- communicable diseases conditions are applying to the largest category of patients and the cost of treatment is paid out of pocket. This tells how much out- of- pocket expense people send in receiving care.
“When the kidney fails automatically, the end point will be to have kidney transplant and that come out to N13 million as at now in the country, so it is not an easy task,” said Tayo Lawal, medical director Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos said in an interview with BusinessDay.
However, it was recently reported that Cardiac and Renal facility in Lagos worth N5bn has been abandoned. The number of dialysis patients in Nigeria is put at 50, 000 with 15, 000 patients developing kidney diseases annually.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
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