Lawyer Charges FG On Sustainable Health Scheme

A  lawyer and public affairs analyst, Mr Ikechukwu Unegbe, has urged the Federal and State Governments to evolve a sustainable health scheme for Nigerians.

Unegbe who made the appeal in an interview in Lagos, said that medical doctors and other health practitioners should be given good welfare package and be made to work in hospitals equipped with adequate facilities.

The lawyer, who spoke against the backdrop of the recent warning strike by medical doctors in Lagos, said the government should realise that “health is truly wealth”.

“If the government could give the health sector a face-lift, it could go ahead to ban foreign trips by its officials for medical treatment.”

Unegbe added that government should take issues concerning the health sector more seriously.

“Our late President Umaru Yar’Adua had to be flown to Saudi Arabia when he was ill.”

There were cases where some Nigerians travelled to India and Europe for medical treatment only to be received by Nigerian doctors”, he said.

Unegbe advised that government should reform the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and institute a friendly health care scheme for the less-privileged members of the society.

According to him, the NHIS which provides that employers of labour make compulsory contributions toward the medical welfare of their employees, is not being complied with by some employers.

He expressed concern that the NHIS was no longer functioning as originally planned because some employers of labour were not adhering to its provisions.

“I am aware of a case where an insurance company, for two years, refused to remit medical expenses incurred by its employees on the NHIS to the Hospital concerned,” Unegbe said.