Tony Akowe, Abuja
Nigeria needs N6.71trillion to implement the second phase of the national health plan over a period of five years.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, stated this on Thursday at a meeting with members of the House Committee on Healthcare Services and Institutions.
The Minister said the second national health plan is expected to reduce the rate of maternal mortality from 576 per 100,000 live birth to 400 per 100,000 as well as Under-5 mortality rate
He said there was a strategic plan, which has been developed into a blueprint for the health sector for the period up to 2022, adding that the blueprint will focus on health sector development across all levels.
He maintained to fast-track the implementation of the second national health plan, the government is expected to prioritse seven key initiatives.
The Minister, who observed the primary healthcare system is the bedrock of the health sector, said that “public healthcare system is not yet on the speed at all. We are looking for one functional primary healthcare in every political ward which should give us 10,000 units.
“Ministry of Health has redesigned along with National Primary Healthcare Development Agency what the primary health centre should look like.
“It should have staff quarters, because people looking for health will come at all hours of the day and they must be available. We want to have solar power light, we want to assure workers of light we want to assure security and we are looking for a transport system that can carry patients on referral at all hours of the day when patients could not find transport.
“A woman who wants to deliver at 2am in a village and even if the primary health center is 1 kilometer will not find transport and we have lost many women just because of lack of transportation.
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“And also the primary healthcare centres has got a new design, we used to have more than 4,800 that we have operating now, which is about halfway of what we want where we did support and in this respect let me say that we know that building hospitals and primary health centres are favorite constituency projects of members of the House, members of the Senate, members of Assembly.
“But most of these structures are built without following the design. And primary healthcare centre is not just any 4-walls. It has to follow a standard design that allows it to be useable.
“Secondly, the Ministry does not know when people start building these PHCs we don’t know where, we are not even enough advise on the design, we cannot even advise on the location; some are placed so far away from the community that nobody can actually go there.
“And we have marked about 30,000 such structures that are designated to be primary healthcare centres from all sources; 30,000 of which we want to use only 10,000 which we want to revamp.
He said the government planned to collaborate with State Governments in building Secondary healthcare centres by constructing General Hospitals in each of the 774 Local Government Councils across the country.
Ehanire also unveiled plans to setting up emergency ambulance services and toll service, just as he solicited for provision of adequate funding for the health sector and actualization of the 15% budget in line with Abuja Declaration, as well as timely passage of the National Health Insurance Scheme and other related legislations.
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