NMA seeks establishment of health bank, others
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has called for the establishment of a bank for health and the introduction of other innovative measures to reposition health service delivery in the country. The President of NMA, Prof Innocent Ujah, made the call yesterday in Abuja while fielding questions from newsmen during a public hearing on five health […]
Nigeria Medical Association (NMA)
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has called for the establishment of a bank for health and the introduction of other innovative measures to reposition health service delivery in the country.
The President of NMA, Prof Innocent Ujah, made the call yesterday in Abuja while fielding questions from newsmen during a public hearing on five health bills organised by the Senate Committee on Health.
The bills are Advanced Health Care Development Fund (Establishment) Bill 2020; Federal Tertiary Teaching Hospital Development Tax Fund (Establishment) Bill 2020; Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2020; Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo, Benue State (Establishment) Bill 2020 and National Maternal and Pre-natal Deaths Surveillance (Establishment) Bill 2020.
Prof Ujah said it was important for the country to have a health bank just like the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) in order to address the irregular and minimal support for health financing in the country.
He said, “If these banks could exist; why not Bank for Health? It will ensure sustainable funding for health so that our people can benefit from health care.”
He explained that the bill seeking to establish the Federal University of Health Sciences would help provide the needed manpower ranging from doctors, nurses and pharmacists to other allied professions.
The NMA president further said the maternal bill and the medical and dental bill would help address the country’s high maternal and infant mortality rate.
Sponsor of the bill seeking the establishment of Federal University of Health Sciences in Otukpo, Senator Abba Moro (PDP Benue South), said the university would help bridge the gap of the low number of health workers caring for the country’s large population.
Senator Moro said, “From available statistics, we have 72,000 registered medical doctors in Nigeria, and out of this, only 35,000 are practicing. The implication is that only that number is superintending over the health of over 200 million Nigerians.
“This is ridiculous for a country in the 21st Century. It is scary. In 2017 JAMB declared that of all the Nigerian children that applied for medicine and other allied programmes, they could only admit 20 per cent; meaning that 80 per cent of Nigerians waiting to read medicine were left out because they didn’t have spaces.”
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC Kwara Central), called for synergy among all health practitioners as no single profession in the sector could do it alone.
He promised that the five bills would be thoroughly worked on by the committee to improve health care service delivery in the country.