Michael Olugbode in Abuja
Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has advocated access to affordable medical care for all Nigerians, insisting that no citizens should be pushed into poverty for seeking essential medical care.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Ali Pate, also called for national consensus on prioritising healthcare system in the country.
They spoke yesterday at a Health Media Dialogue with media executives in Nigeria with the theme: “Escalating Executive and Media Action for Health Accountability and Financing,” in Abuja.
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Sani said: “We believe no Nigerian family should be pushed into poverty by seeking essential medical care. Here, equity is not rhetoric for us. It is a principle of governance and justice…”
While noting that health facilities had been elevated in all parts of Kaduna State, Sani said these landmark facilities significantly reduced the need for medical tourism, lessening the financial and emotional burdens in families.
Noting that emergency care was given priority, he said, “We have launched the Kaduna State Emergency Medical Services ambulance system, which has ensured that countless lives ensuring that urgent intervention reach patient within critical calling hour.
“Our consensus, as of today in Kaduna, the government has made it free for every emergency case in the first 24 or 48 hours without paying a penny, every patient will be treated free the first 48 hours in Kaduna.”
Pate, on his part, said the issue of health affordability was universal and Nigerians needed to know that the federal government was working on this.
“There is real pain of affordability. Half of the world’s population doesn’t have access to basic healthcare services, not only in Nigeria, but we tend to self flagellate and not build a consensus to fix it, because it takes national consensus. It’s not a technical issue.
“Fixing health is not just a technical issue because we have had technical expertise for a very long time. It’s not also purely technocratic in terms of just having the right actors that know how to manage doing fundamentally, it’s a political choice that is reflective of political consensus within a country.
“It is when a country does not build a consensus on the prioritization of health or of education that it doesn’t allocate the resources or use the resources in that right way. And that goes beyond government.”
Also speaking, the Country Director, Gates Foundation Nigeria, Uche Amaonwu, said the health of mothers, children and families, and by extension Nigeria’s human capital depended on what is done next for primary health care.
Earlier, the Executive Director, International Society of Media in Public Health, Mrs. Moji Makanjuola reiterated the importance of budgeting adequately to health sector.
