Some health practitioners have called for total overhaul of the economy with increased investments and funding on the health sector.
According to them, this will address the current economic challenges and promote overall well-being of the citizens.
In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos, the experts said that stable and effective health system were key to progress and overall good health of the citizens.
The health experts spoke in commemoration of Nigeria’s 64th Independence Anniversary.
According to them, the nation’s health sector is crumbling due to shortage of manpower, high inflation, high cost of drugs/healthcare and high cost of living among others.
A Medical Imaging Scientist, Dr Livinus Abonyi, said that the whole architecture of the Nigerian economy as well as the principles of the nation’s leadership needed to be overhauled to effect positive changes.
Abonyi, a Lecturer at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital College of Medicine, decried the visible hardship and high inflation in the country, which had made an average Nigerian to loose hope of surviving.
According to him, with the current high inflation, the health sector cannot survive because of its sensitive nature, stressing the need to stabilise the economy and by extension, the health sector.
“Overhauling the Nigerian economy, particularly the principles of leadership, is of immense importance, because with only that, every other thing will fall into place.
“The nation is loosing all its trained hands in the heath sector and nothing tangible is done to halt the trend; almost all the trained medical professionals have relocated abroad to practise.
“Presently, there is serious shortage of manpower in the health sector.
“Obviously, the high inflation has made life unbearable; the cost of healthcare and drugs are not within the reach of an average Nigerian,” Abonyi said.
A Consultant Neuro-psychiatrist, Dr Maymunah Kadiri, called for adequate funding of the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), to enhance its performance and by extension improve the nation’s health system.
Kadiri, also the Medical Director of Pinnacle Medical Services, Lagos, described PHCs as vital instruments in health system because they drive disease prevention, which is the most important aspect of healthcare.
According to her, PHCs are health facilities very close-by (a walking distance), where people go to seek healthcare when they have minor ailments.
She, therefore, emphasised the need for employment of community health workers who lived in the communities to manage the PHCs.
She said, “The primary healthcare is a vital instrument in health system because they drive disease prevention, which is the most important aspect of healthcare, hence, the need for its adequate funding and maintenance.
“Similarly, there is need to employ trained community healthcare workers who reside in the community and are familiar with the area because they are the ones to go to the interiors where doctors and specialised nurses cannot reach, to immunise and educate the rural dwellers on health matters”.
On his part, Dr Taiwo Obindo, President, Association of Psychiatrists of Nigeria (APN), urged the government to increase the budget allocation to health sector and by extension to the mental health subsector.
Obindo said that it was only about five per cent of the budget allocation to health sector that went to the mental health, which he said, was far below the WHO stipulate figure of 15 per cent.
Obindo also urged the government to intensify efforts toward implementation of the Mental Health Act by establishing a mental health funding department as enshrined in the Act.
“Mental health needed to be given the seriousness it deserved by government, individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
“Let the government increase investment in mental health, subsidise the treatment of mental illness, establish more psychiatric hospitals and implement contents of the Mental Health Act.
“These would go a long way to improve mental health services, increase access to treatment and prevent mental cases from degenerating and becoming difficult to treat or manage,” he said.(NAN)
