The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has inaugurated statutory committees of the 2014 National Health Act to ensure adequate coordination and implementation of the provisions of the act.
Boade Akinola, Director, Media and Public Relations of Federal Ministry of Health made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja
Adewole said that the committees were to drive the process of achieving Universal Health Coverage by making healthcare services accessible, affordable and available for Nigerians in an equitable manner.
The minister said that the act provided key actors of the health system with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
Adewole explained that the act also provided minimum package of healthcare services for all Nigerians with a predictable and sustainable financing stream.
He said that the basic healthcare package would be funded from the one percent consolidated revenue funds and any other sources of provisions for innovative financing of the health sector.
The minister said that the act would equip the health system to play major role in emerging fields in the sector both locally and at the global level.
“The act would also encourage research and structures that would address ethical issues around research in the country,’’ Adewole said
Responding on behalf of the committees, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, the Chairman of the National Health Consultative Committee, pledged that the committees would carry out their mandate satisfactorily.
He said the committee would assiduously move the health sector forward.
The statutory committees include National Health Consultative Forum, National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards, National Health Research Ethics, and National Health Research.
Others are National Drugs Formular and Essential Drugs Review, and National Independent Tissue Transplantation.
