Reps seek reform of health sector
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services, John Chike Okafor (APC, Imo), has called for a comprehensive reform of the country’s health sector. The lawmaker, who made the call during a public hearing organized by the Committee in Abuja yesterday, said affordable healthcare remains the greatest dividend of democracy a nation can […]
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services, John Chike Okafor (APC, Imo), has called for a comprehensive reform of the country’s health sector.
The lawmaker, who made the call during a public hearing organized by the Committee in Abuja yesterday, said affordable healthcare remains the greatest dividend of democracy a nation can give its citizens.
“There is need for a comprehensive reform of our health sector, to ensure that all Nigerians have access to quality and affordable healthcare services.”
“For me, good health remains the greatest dividend of democracy any nation can give its citizens, and I think that’s what the Muhamammdu Buhari’s government is working towards,” Okafor said.
The hearing was in consideration of a “bill to repeal the Health Records Officers Act, 2004, and re-enact the Health Information Practitioners Council of Nigeria” as well as “a bill to amend the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria Act.”
According to the chairman, the two bills were aimed at achieving effective and efficient health information management system in Nigeria.
Declaring the public hearing open, Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, decried what he called “worrisome brain drain in the health sector,” which he added required “quick intervention to guarantee efficient and effective service delivery.”
”The ultimate aim of the legislation is to ensure efficient service delivery in the health sector. We must overhaul our health sector in view of the continuous public outcry against defective service delivery.”
“The high number of Nigerians who go on foreign medical trips and the attendant brain drain among professionals in the sector, are indications that the sector requires serious intervention,” Dogara said.