Health Minister Finally Admits Poor Condition Of Hospital Facilities, Cites Reasons

Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has finally admitted that the condition of hospital facilities in Nigeria is porous.

Naija News reports that the minister of health did not only admit the poor condition of the hospital facilities but also blamed the poor conditions of the facilities across the country on the foundation of healthcare in the country.

Adewole made this known while speaking during his appearance before the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday.

He appeared before the Senate to honour his invitation by the Senate over what the Senate President, Bukola Saraki called the poor state of infrastructure that has contributed to the death of Nigerians in need of health care.

Speaking before the Senate on Tuesday, Adewole said in his words; “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.

“Your Excellency, I must commend you for approving the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. It is a game changer.

“We spent two years developing, and over the last two weeks, we’ve started to roll out. Twenty-two 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 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.

“I commend the Senate for the approval of the 1% primary healthcare inclusive in the Budget.

“Teaching hospitals cannot survive alone and in isolation. The State needs to partner with us so that secondary hospitals would be working.

“We believe that the issue of power supply should be looked into.”