Osinbajo Assures On Efficient Health Care Delivery For Nigerians
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday assured Nigerians that the federal government is determined to effectively fund the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the best interest of Nigerians.
He spoke at the 60th anniversary of the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan on Monday.
The vice president promised that government would offer affordable, acceptable and veritable health care to all Nigerians.
“As a federal government, we’ve made our policy clear. We want to offer affordable, acceptable and veritable health care to all Nigerians.
“It is clearer by the day that government alone cannot adequately fund most of the infrastructure, for the first time in almost two decades we are spending as much as 20 per cent of our budget on infrastructure.
He explained that the ultimate funding plan as a government was the comprehensive reinvigoration of the National Health Insurance Scheme.
He noted that there was no way of effectively funded health care for a nation that has the 4th largest population in the world by 2050 without a fully operational NHIS.
Also speaking, former President Olusegun Obasanjo expressed worries over the current state of the country’s tertiary health care institutions including the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan due to under -funding.
The former president said that poor funding of the health institutions had been responsible for the challenges faced by most of the health institutions in the country while ageing infrastructure and recurrent strikes by health workers also contributed.
According to him, the mortality report documented by the hospital over the past five years shows a steady trend in the incidence of cancer related deaths while Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) account for almost 80 per cent of deaths.
“The health sector is an invaluable asset to any economy and I believe that this is true for the current Economy Recovery plans of the present administration.
“There is no doubt that a healthy nation should naturally match a more productive workforce and the corollary is that poor health indices spell doom for any nation on the short term and on the long run,” he said.
Despite the many contending factors in the health arena, Obasanjo encouraged the hospital to come up with a robust plan that will see the institution transcend mediocrity and attain a more enviable position in the world rankings.
