Finland has relentlessly pursued knowledge and education, which has yielded positive results in every facet of its economy. Professor Anneli Portman, a researcher with University of Helsinki, explained how education and equity became the twin pillars of the Finnish culture. He said each was dependent on the other, noting that education was part of the mission to create a fairer society.
According to Portman, Finland strives for a population where every citizen learns to weigh up controversial arguments in a measured, rational way, but also knows when best to defer. Other than education and equity which are the twin pillars of Finnish culture, another interesting thing with Finland is the rapid development of its health sector.
In the quest of this writer to know more about Finland, I discovered a lot people have already written interesting stories about the culture of the Finnish people, their cuisines and the nature of the Baltic Sea from Finnish shorelines. However, my story seeks to examine the Finnish health sector and how its of interests to me because of my passion for a better health sector through the advancement of investigative medical journalism in Nigeria.
After going through a piece written by Hon. Chike Okafor (member of the House of Representatives representing Okigwe South Federal Constituency and chairman, House Committee on Healthcare service) titled: A reflection on healthcare services in Nigeria and the challenges of medical tourism, it invigorated my passion to play an active role in the effort to improve healthcare in Nigeria.
Chike lamented on how poor healthcare service in Nigeria had become. He explained that one of the limitations to the achievement of a working healthcare system is the lack of confidence by Nigerians in social health insurance. The lawmaker said a functioning National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for all citizens would be a good way to revamp the health sector. However, the NHIS scheme in Nigeria has been undersubscribed, because of ignorance among citizens, weak governance and lack of emergency response services.
A lot of Nigerians have lost interest in the healthcare delivery, but a decentralised healthcare system is a better alternative for a better delivery. This brings me back to the success story of Finland in healthcare.
The country has a highly decentralised three-level publicly- funded healthcare system and a much smaller private sector. For every citizen is a universal healthcare package which aims at preventing diseases and other illnesses.
Why this system is necessary for a country like Nigeria is because it aligns with health equity which can be a major focus of non-governmental organisations dedicated to social justice and human rights. This system has been effective in Finland to the level that it eradicated communicable diseases and improved overall health of the Finnish population.
A survey published by the European Commission in 2014 revealed that Finland belongs to the top five countries in satisfaction; 88 per cent of Finnish respondents were satisfied with the system, compared with the European Union’s average of 41.3 per cent.
Many people have interest in Finland healthcare is because it is considered a model for countries that want improvement in their health sectors. Finland has positive indicators in public health interventions and progress in Medicare. This has led to remarkable improvement in life expectancy in recent times and also brought about impressive results in the rates of infant mortality and maternal mortality which is among the lowest in the world.
Equity being one of the pillars of Finnish culture is also evident in its healthcare where everyone is entitled to same quality of healthcare service. For Nigerian healthcare to be better, the health gap needs to be narrowed down for better access to good services by low-income and high-income earners. The equity in healthcare service allowed Finland to be ranked best in mothers’ life management, which includes maternal health, child’s wellbeing and mother’s educational, economic and political status.
In Nigeria, the level education of mothers is a determinant of how health issues in different homes are managed, which means there is a lot need to be learned from the Finnish healthcare system.
My passion is to ensure that challenges militating against healthcare system in Nigeria are brought to the front burner. As a medical student who volunteers to help accident patients, I have observed with great dismay that lack of Emergency Response Service Centres at strategic places in Nigeria is a leading cause of deaths.
If such services are available, there would be reduction in the time it takes to save the life of a accident patient. Finland spends 9.1 per cent of its gross domestic product on healthcare and a very high percentage of this spending is channeled to emergency treatment handled by Emergency Rapid Response Centres and hospitals. This service has been on since 2001 in Finland and it was reviewed in 2011. It now promotes public safety, recognises the provision of emergency response services and their coverage with quality. An improved healthcare service delivery is possible in Nigeria; all it takes is additional commitment by both the government and private sector.
- Ekenedirichukwu, 600-Level Medicine and Surgery, IMSU