Private hospitals lament multiple taxes, levies

The Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners in Nigeria (AGPMPN) has called on government to eliminate or minimize levies charged private hospitals, multiple taxations are draining private health care centres and the cost is being pushed on to patients. In an address at the association’s 38th annual general meeting and scientific conference in Abuja, […]

The Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners in Nigeria (AGPMPN) has called on government to eliminate or minimize levies charged private hospitals, multiple taxations are draining private health care centres and the cost is being pushed on to patients.

In an address at the association’s 38th annual general meeting and scientific conference in Abuja, its president, Dr Frank Odafen, said private hospitals were constantly under the discomforting burden of multiple taxation, following the drive by states and governments at all levels to increase their [internally generated revenues.”

“It should be remembered that private hospitals essentially offer socially service and are not strictly speaking, commercial ventures, because they are patronized by the economically and socially vulnerable who must be attended to in order to save their lives,” Odafen said.

He said multiple taxes, in addition to resources put into paying competitive worker salaries, maintaining equipment, power and security, increase medical bills patients have to pay in private hospitals.

“Only universal health coverage via the National Health Insurance Scheme can eliminate or reduce out-of-pocket expenses and provide profitable lives on the enrollee panels of private medical practitioners,” Odafen explained.

The association has urged “urgency, unalloyed commitment and political will” to universal health coverage, even as Wife of the President Aisha Buhari pledged support to push for wider coverage of health insurance.

In her address, presented by wife of Kebbi state governor, Zainab Bagudu, Buhari said quality health care services remained a cardinal objective of her husband’s administration and required involvement of all stakeholders.

She called on doctors to be a part of the vision and movement for the benefit of Nigeria.

To improve services, AGPMPN has called on government to provide security for medical practitioners called out for emergency work at odd hours, guarantee private practitioners in need of leasing equipment.

AGPMPN has dedicated its meeting and conference to communicable diseases, insisting shifting focus away from communicable diseases would not help the nation.

Said Dr Jeremiah Abutu, chairman of AGPMPN in the FCT, “We are in the tropics, we are in the third world, and communicable diseases are still everywhere. Because of our lifestyle, you discover noncommunicable diseases are coming in now, but the focus cannot shift from communicable disease now because we have not done anything about them.”