THISDAY Set to Hold 3rd Healthcare Policy Dialogue, to Focus on States, Emergency Medicine

•  Adewole: Summit will strengthen health services in Nigeria

By Martins Ifijeh

Following the success recorded at the two policy dialogues held by THISDAY on Healthcare Financing and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in March and April 2018 respectively, the newspaper is set to hold a broader edition, with a focus on two areas: High Performing States in Healthcare, and Emergency Medicine in Nigeria.

The Summit, themed: ‘‘Funding Healthcare for All, Why States Matter’’ and ‘’Emergency Medicine: Need for Action,” will hold July 5, 2018 at the Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja by 10am.

The two previous editions focused on the chronic underfunding of Nigeria’s health sector, yielding a number of successes, including for the first time, the earmarking of N57.15 billion in the 2018 national budget for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) by the National Assembly.

This third edition will bring to the fore roles of states in achieving UHC, identify high performing states and showcase the importance of emergency medicine in tackling primary and secondary healthcare issues in Nigeria.

The Save One Million Lives (SOML) Programme performance index will be one of the tools in measuring high performance states.

The SOML is an establishment of the federal government which aims to support states in the improvement of health outcomes in their various states. Under the programme, the federal government, in 2017, gave $1.5 million to each of the 36 states.

According to THISDAY Board of Directors, it will use a set of verifiable and objective indicators provided by the newspapers Healthcare Dialogue Team and the SOML initiative programme to determine star states in the six geo political zones.

The board said the poor health outcomes recorded in Nigeria, are chiefly because priority has not been given to the basic healthcare needs of Nigerians, adding that for any country to effectively achieve UHC, all levels of government must be involved.

The Board said: “States and local governments are very critical to achieving UHC, but only few states have charged ahead with increased budgetary allocation of financing to primary healthcare and expansion of coverage of essential priority interventions. Most states in Nigeria are yet to put in place the required accountability and governance framework required to change the tide for improved health outcomes. However, some states have differentiated themselves and are making efforts towards a better healthcare.”

The board also said with an effective emergency medicine in Nigeria, accident prevention will be strengthened; pre-hospital transport care will be addressed, while hospital stabilisation and treatment will be more effective.

THISDAY said it was for these reasons it is holding the high powered summit in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, World Bank, and a host of development partners.

The summit will bring together the presidency, members of the federal executive council, governors, commissioners for health, national and state primary healthcare development agencies, high level dignitaries from the public and private sector, stakeholders and members of the public.

Sharing his thoughts on the Summit, the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who described THISDAY as a star in repositioning healthcare in Nigeria following its interest for a better healthcare, said the dialogue will help emphasise the role of states as primary healthcare providers.

He said while the federal government has given a fixed grant of $1.5 million to each state under the SOML last year, he believed this event will provide a platform for accessing what has been done with the fund, and help in comparing states for a healthy competition.

“We intend to give the states more money for healthcare interventions, but accessing what they have done with the one already given is important. States are very key to addressing healthcare in the country, but many states have been relaxed, thinking the federal will take care of their problems.

“I think the issue started when there was so much ‘money’ around. At that time, the federal government created an impression that they could do it alone, so states relaxed thinking the federal will take care of the problem.  But to me, it does not represent the reality on ground. Federal does not have the human and financial resources, so it is time states play active role.  The people in the states are primarily indigenes of that state before they are indigenes of Nigeria,” the minister said.

He said this era of cooperation will help in strengthening healthcare, and will make states viable partners in healthcare delivery in the country.

The minister, who likened the federal government to the roof of a house, said the states are like the walls of a building, while the local government is the foundation. 

“So we will be deceiving ourselves if we put a golden roof up without good foundation and good walls. We must strengthen all levels of healthcare, and this dialogue is a step in the right direction to achieving that,” he said.