By Sola Ogundipe

AS reactions continue to trail the allocation of N221.7 billion to the health sector by the Federal government as presented by President Mohammadu Buhari to the Senate last week, experts have called on Federal government to ensure adequate human resources and infrastructural development and support.

BRIEFING – From left: Managing Director, Managed Health Services Plc., MHS, Dr. Patrick Korie; Member, Board of Directors, MHS, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa and Head, Finances & Accounts, MHS, Mr. Johnson Omoruyi, during an interaction with the media in Lagos, recently.

Government has also been urged to immediately facilitate the entrenchment of a policy for Universal Health Care in health insurance.  Making the call in Lagos, a medical doctor and health insurance expert, Dr Patrick Korie, said for the 2016 budget to make appreciable difference, the medical community and the larger public expect better healthcare access and improved infrastructure.

Korie, who is the Managing Director, Managed Healthcare Services Ltd, MHS, Lagos, argued that health is about wellbeing and three things  are required when talking about wellbeing of the people.

Physical infrastructure

“We need to look at access to health services beyond the perspective of the presence of the facilities. Having  a physical structure called the healthcare facility does not automatically translate to access in medical perspective,” he noted. Further, Korie observed that the healthcare industry wants facilities that are functional,at the  primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

“To be functional is to have the necessary equipment and manpower, and environment. These must be put in place with the budget so that when people walk into a hospital, there would be assurance that they would get treatment that is comparable with anywhere in the world.” He argued that the issue of healthcare tourism is a problem because it is being encouraged by the fact that many Nigerians are compelled to go abroad to seek care that may actually be available locally.

“There is this feeling that the right  and functional health facilities are not on ground here. So infrastructural development is very important.  The right healthcare personnel and availability of drugs are all very important. If these things are addressed in such a way that people would have faith in the system, things would augur well for Nigeria in this dispensation”.

Noting that the Primary Health Care, PHC,  level is where most Nigerians access health, Korie argued that it must be made ready to function with immediate effect. “The PHC facilities are not being properly handled by the Local Governments. We must institute an efficient healthcare management system that will enable us tackle categorically the healthcare indices that have been getting.

Using important but basic healthcare statistics is good for planning and projection, so  getting these statistics is very important in planning  and development matters.” In an admonition to the Minister of Health, an accountant and member, Board of Directors, MHS, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa, said only adoption of Universal Health Care would guarantee good quality  health services for Nigerians.

Idahosa said complaints about health insurance emanate either because people don’t participate at all  or participate but are not getting the degree of service desired. He said the quality of service currently available is poor because there isn’t a pool of resources that is large enough to accommodate everybody.

“The first thing to say to the Minister of Health by way of health policy is to work very quickly towards Universal Health Care in insurance

Basic health insurance

“If there is UHC and every person in Nigeria contributes, say N1000, that gives 170 million people giving N1000 a month into a pool of insurance, there will be enough funds to increase capitation.

Then, if you go to the hospital, the basic health insurance plan can be expanded. The reason for the current limitations is because the available pool of funds is too small, but with UHC, this will not be a hindrance. Everything will be covered because the pool of funds will be much.

“So the first thing  that we would want the minister to do is to work together with the state, local governments and the private sector to attain UHC where everybody contributes,” he avowed.