To ensure the delivery of quality and affordable healthcare to all Nigerians, the Nigerian Medical Association , Lagos State Branch, has stressed the need to achieve a Universal Health Coverage , saying it would lead to the improvement in the country’s poor health indices.
For UHC to be achieved in the country, NMA identifies improved health insurance scheme that will leave no one behind as the way forward.
Disclosing this at an event to mark the 2018 Physicians’ Week in Lagos, Chairman of the association, Dr. Saliu Oseni, said considering the importance of achieving UHC, NMA deemed it necessary to deliberate on it and to also educate all Lagosians on the concept and how it would lead to improved health outcomes.
Speaking on the theme titled: “Universal Health Coverage – Leave No One Behind”, Oseni commended the Lagos State Government for taking the lead and bold step in achieving UHC with the introduction of the Lagos State Health Insurance and other programmes to boost access to healthcare in the state.
“We hope to liaise with government in ensuring that all stakeholders subscribe to it, while also looking into key challenges with its operationalisation with the aim to ensure fairness to all”, he added.
Away from universal health coverage, Oseni revealed that the NMA was working hard to boost the current effort in sustaining polio eradication in the country by 2019, adding that the association was also tackling the issue of medical quackery.
Earlier in a statement, NMA President, Dr Francis Faduyile, called for improved enrollment in the National Health Insurance Scheme from the current less than five per cent coverage.
Listing the importance of health insurance in achieving UHC, Faduyile suggested that health insurance should be made mandatory in Nigeria in order to have every Nigerian enrolled in the scheme, stressing that without mandatory health insurance scheme, it would be impossible for the country to achieve universal heath coverage.
According to him, NHIS is a vital tool to the attainment of UHC.
“To achieve UHC, it is therefore important to strengthen the NHIS and explore other health financing system like the Community Based Health Insurance which some states have keyed into.
“This scheme will significantly cater for the informal sector, especially for the rural dwellers.
“Therefore, in our journey toward achieving UHC, we must resolve to work together with relevant stakeholders, including the NMA and other professional associations in the health sector as well as partners and donor agencies,” he said.
To significantly improve on the health status of Nigerians, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, in his remarks at event organised by the Lagos NMA, urged the Federal Government to successfully implement current national and global priorities such as the Sustainable Development Goals, universal health coverage, vision 20:2020, amongst others
On his part, immediate past Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Seni Adetu, called for more private sector investment in the health sector through a Public- Private Partnership arrangement.
