Ahead of the World Health Day on April 7, health experts say accountability, financial and political issues are threats to effective application of Nigeria’s Universal Health Coverage, a scheme targeted at providing full and equal access to healthcare to people and communities in various parts of the country.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) ranked Nigeria 187 out of 191 countries in its ranking of the world’s health systems, this shows Nigeria has a lot to do in improving its health system and making healthcare affordable and accessible to the millions of its citizens.
Experts are calling attention on the need to address the country’s goal of achieving universal health coverage as part of efforts to mark the 2018 World Health Day, with the theme “Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere. Health for All”.
Chibuzo Opara, Co-CEO DrugStoc Nigeria, said approaching the issues of universal healthcare is about elaborating equitable and affordable healthcare at the end of the day, adding that there should be an agreement and a commitment between citizens and decision makers on where the country places universal healthcare among other important priorities.
“In order to create a catalytic process within the system, we need to focus on tackling the issue of financial access to healthcare, holding individuals and entities accountable and measuring the impact of interventions and activities in the healthcare sector. Infrastructure challenges are still a key issue and the need to sensitise and make people aware of the inherent advantages in a healthy population, especially now that we are still a young aged country,” said Opara
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the Universal Health Coverage is a political choice for countries themselves to make. A study released recently by WHO showed that 85 percent of the funding gap to achieve universal health coverage could be met by countries themselves, although up to 32 of the poorest countries will require development assistance
Analysts in the healthcare sector also said that for universal health coverage of Nigerians to be possible, there is an urgent need for the government to include cancer treatment under the NHIS operation, so that more people will be able to afford the treatment and also go for screening.
They further say that government needs to encourage activities through non-governmental agency to promote advocacy, national policy on training of personnel for clinical and nationwide screening program in order to enhance early detection, control the upward trends and reduce the mortality rate of Non- communicable diseases.
Most public hospitals are ill-equipped to handle disease outbreaks while private hospitals are expensive for the largely poor mass of Nigerians.
According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, the world needs a strong and broad coalition to drive health impact; I will continue to highlight universal health coverage at G7 and G20 meetings, at regional summits and at the United Nations General Assembly.
“Universal health coverage is ultimately a political choice. It is the responsibility of every country and national government to pursue it. I personally commit to spearheading the advocacy required to secure the political support of global, regional, and national leaders
“We need to do more to enable your advocacy and activism efforts, to support of universal health coverage and to increase access to essential medicines and health commodities” said Ghebreyesus.
Health experts say for Nigeria to achieve universal health coverage to deliver substantial health, economic and political benefits across populations, healthcare provision should be considered as human right and no one should be denied access to healthcare due to financial reasons, gender reasons, issues related to geographical barriers or any other issues which might create a barrier to healthcare access.
“Today, Nigeria is yet to find solutions to most of the health challenges in the country, like incessant outbreaks of Lassa fever, high maternal and child deaths, poor primary health facilities, lack of functioning cancer machines, malnutrition, poor health emergency responses and many others. This is happening because the Nigerian governments, both at federal and state levels, do not place priority to healthcare,” said Runcie Chidebe, executive director of Project Pink Blue.
Universal health care, (also referred to as universal health coverage, universal coverage, and universal care or socialised health care) usually refers to a health care system that provides health care and financial protection to all citizens of a particular country. It is organised around providing a specified package of benefits to all members of a society with the end goal of providing financial risk protection, improved access to health services, and improved health outcomes. Universal health care is not one-size-fits-all and does not imply coverage for all people for everything. Universal health care can be determined by three critical dimensions: who is covered, what services are covered, and how much of the cost is covered. It is described by the World Health Organisation as a situation where citizens can access health services without incurring financial hardship.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
