Health
Health Facilities: Minister Of Health, Adewole Explains What State Govts Need To Do
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has blamed the foundation of healthcare in the country for the deteriorating conditions of hospital facilities across the country.
Earlier, Naija News reported that the Senate had summoned Adewole to appear before it today over what the Senate President Bukola Saraki called the poor state of infrastructure that has contributed to deaths of Nigerians in need of health care.
Speaking before the Senate on Tuesday, Adewole said, noted that “Only 10% of Nigerians who require care would need to go to tertiary institutions, adding that“For them to function effectively, they depend on functional primary and secondary health care centres. If these two levels of care are functional, about 90% of ailments will be taken care of.
In a series of tweets by the Senate, @NGRSenate, Minister Adewole was quoted to have said, “Over the last couple of years, we have had a challenge. We can describe the health care as a pyramid with Primary Health Care at the base, Secondary at middle and Tertiary at the top.”
We can compare it to a building; primary health as the foundation, the secondary as the wall and the tertiary as the roof. The problem we have is that the foundation is bad and the wall is weak and we are only concerned about the roof.”
“If we invest in the Primary Health Care, a lot of people would not have a cause to go to the Tertiary, He added.
Adewole, however, thanked the Senate President for the approval of the 1% primary Healthcare lnclusive Budget as well as the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, describing it as ‘a game changer.’
He continued: We spent two years developing, and over the last two weeks we’ve started to roll out. 22 of our states have registered for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.”
Our aim is to structure it in a way that money would flow from the Central Bank to the agencies. As of today 14 states are yet to show interest in basic health care provision.”
“We have two (2) signatories to the account; the head of the community where it is located and the head of the facilities.”
“Our aim is to offer free antenatal, free deliveries, screening for tuberculosis.
He further asked for the intervention of the state in the health system. See Tweet below:
“Teaching hospitals cannot survive alone and in isolation. The State needs to partner with us so that secondary hospitals would be working.”- Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) May 21, 2019
However, in more reactions Senators Shehu Sani and Francis Alimikhena fingered some other areas that Minister Adewole had left out in his explanation such as the inadequate space for medical students to do their horsemanship programmes, the availability of sanitary inspectors among others.
See Tweets below:
“The area that worries me is that of the medical students who graduate from medical schools and have nowhere to do their houseman-ship. How do we make sure our medical students always get where to practice?”- Senator Sam Egwu.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) May 21, 2019
“Do we still have sanitary inspectors, if so are they allowed to carry out their duties and are the CMD’s allowed to act independently?”- Senator Francis Alimikhena.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) May 21, 2019
“Is there a way to exclude teaching hospitals, Secondary hospitals and primary hospitals from paying electricity bills? Would it improve the services of the hospitals?”- Senator Shehu Sani.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) May 21, 2019
