Adedeji Oluwakorede

With a growing population of over 190 million people, it is sad to note that not all citizens have free access to food and water, let alone primary healthcare.

The life expectancy in Nigeria is 55 years ranking below countries like the United Kingdom and the United States with higher life expectancies of 81 years and 79 years respectively.

Even countries ravaged with war and conflict like Afghanistan rank higher than Nigeria.

The Nigerian healthcare system has, for decades, failed to fully encompass the whole population or at least a majority of it.

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Many individuals living in rural areas, as well as the urban cities, do not have access to affordable health services.

Diseases increase out-of-pocket expenditure creating financial hardship and worsening the poverty state of the citizens.

Nigeria is not alone in this, as about 12% of the earth’s population spend at least 10% of their earnings to pay for health services pushing around 100 million people into extreme poverty just because of healthcare expenses.

Ensuring that all people have access to essential health services which include the prevention, diagnosis, rehabilitation, palliation, and treatment of diseases without incurring financial hardship to individuals sums up the concept of Universal health coverage.

In a country like Nigeria, providing and improving primary healthcare services is crucial to the attainment of universal health coverage, or in this case, national health coverage.

The first level of the healthcare system, at an almost grassroots level an individual makes contact with, is the primary healthcare facility.

Primary healthcare ensures that people receive healthcare services that can cover the majority of their health needs, not only for a specific set of diseases but throughout their lifespan, as close and easy as possible in their everyday environment.

Currently, the state of the primary healthcare system is poor and unappealing with only a few of the numerous primary healthcare facilities functioning properly.

A large number of these facilities do not deliver standard and quality services for reasons due to inadequate equipment, poor funding, an insufficient supply of medicine, and poor recruitment of standard staff.

To ensure that individuals across the country have access to essential healthcare services, there is a need to greatly improve on these healthcare facilities.

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The government, through the Ministry of Health, should work to provide standard up-to-date equipment, ensure that essential drugs are duly supplied to the facilities, improve services and increase the number of staff in these facilities to prevent long queues which often discourage people from using these facilities.

Rather than focusing only on the treatment of diseases, efforts should be made by health agencies to adopt a multiperspective approach to diseases by taking methods to prevent diseases in the first place.

Immunization programs play a key role in this and thankfully, Nigeria has gone three years without a case of Polio.

Awareness programs should also be carried out to sensitize people on the endemic diseases prevalent in the region and key steps in the prevention and alleviation of such diseases.

To ensure Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria, there is a great need to improve the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to cater not only for formally employed people, but also for traders, drivers, carpenters, and other self-employed living in rural areas, urban slums, towns, and cities as well.

“Prevention is better than cure”, a popular saying goes and it implies that individuals have a role to play as well, particularly in the prevention of diseases.

Proper sanitation of environment and good hygiene help to eliminate reservoirs of infection present in the environment, preventing the need to spend additionally on healthcare.

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The use of mosquito nets and/or mosquito repellents to prevent malaria is also encouraged.

The importance and impact of Universal Health Coverage cannot be over-emphasized in a society.

The health of a population has a trickle-down effect on the economy of the nation. Healthy individuals are able to work better and prevent additional spending on diseases.

Achieving Universal health coverage is crucial in alleviating poverty and achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

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