Private medical doctors seek health intervention fund

Nigerian private medical doctors have bemoaned the state of health sector in the country, calling for an immediate intervention/infrastructural development fund to avert imminent collapse of the sector.  The medical doctors who declared an emergency in the sector believed that the fund was overdue following the sorry state of the sector at the moment.

The fund, according to doctors under the auspices of Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, AGPMPN is to enhance capacity and support infrastructure of the private sector, handling over 60 per cent health needs of Nigerians

At a brainstorming session of its National Executive Council, recently in Lagos, the National President of the association, Dr. Anthony Omolola, who noted that they were playing a significant and larger role in the rendering of healthcare services, observed that the worsening health indices and condition of healthcare facilities would attest to a sector on the verge of collapse.

Omolola who emphasized that through robust collaboration between government and the private sector, healthcare in Nigeria will enjoy a facelift said while industrial disharmony and inter-professional rancour had also become recurring decimal in the system; the government has also failed to foster partnership with the private sector, to utilize its abundant capacity in meeting the healthcare needs of the people.

“It is obvious that the public sector cannot meet the demands of healthcare delivery by the people. Meanwhile, AGPMPN has in several studies found wasting capacities in private sector that would have been useful to the entire health system. But we also know that there will be very little in terms of 21st Century service delivery without genuine interest of the government to partner with the private sector.”

Noting that though the government had been proactive in meeting the needs of important sectors like Agriculture and Aviation with the intervention fund, he wondered why such gesture has not been extended to the health sector.

“Given this emergency on our hands, why should health come last in getting intervention fund? Without health, no one can go to the farm or fly in an airplane. It goes to show that health sector is more important, if all industries must thrive.  We therefore appeal to government at all levels, especially the Federal Government to ensure health intervention/infrastructure development fund for the health sector. This may not have to wait for bureaucracies of legislations because it is an emergency. With executive fiat, the fund could be provided to promote investment in the health sector.”

On his part, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Dr Jde Idris, acknowledged the remarkable roles of private medical practitioners in repositioning the health sector to an enviable height.

He identified the association to have possessed the number and expertise needed t o transform Nigeria’s health sector.  He tasked all practitioners to be alive to their responsibilities.

Explaining high taxation levied on private facilities, he said: like other states of the Federation, Lagos had only collected most of the levies on behalf of the Federal Government.

Founder, First Foundation, Dr. Tosin Ajayi stressed that the private practitioners is the surviving hope for healthcare delivery in the country, and must be supported by the government.

Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Femi Olugbile stressed the need to maintain quality in healthcare delivery

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