Don Seeks State Of Emergency In Health Sector

A renowned scholar, and Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Enugu Campus, Professor Obinna Onwujekwe, has called for declaration of state of emergency in the nation’s health sector, describing health services in the country as very embarrassing.

Professor Onwujekwe who made the call at the weekend while presenting the 74th Inaugural Lecture of the University entitled, “Moving Nigeria from Low Coverage to Universal Health Coverage: Health System Challenges, Equity and the Evidence-Base”, before a capacity crowd inside the Moot Court at Enugu-campus, Prof Onwujekwe, said the weakness of the Nigerian health system was particularly manifest in the shocking maternal and child health indices.

He revealed that the country has a very high maternal mortality ratio of 630 per 100, 000 live births, 58 per cent ANC coverage, 45 per cent delivery by skilled birth attendants, very high under-5 mortality rate of 153 per 1,000 live births in urban areas, and 243 per 1,000 live births in rural communities in the country.

His words: “It is estimated that every day 2,300 under-5 children and 145 women of child bearing age die in Nigeria, and to paint a very vivid image, this is like 12mid-size planes crashing in Nigeria daily with no survivours, sadly, the system is not really paying attention”.

The inaugural lecturer, however, suggested that the Nigerian health system, should strive to achieve universal coverage of, at least, all essential healthcare services, pointing out that considerations of efficiency and equity are paramount in the achievement of universal coverage.

Continuing, he said, “Equity is particularly important as universal coverage implies the explicit coverage of all citizens no matter their socio-economic status, gender, age, geographic location, education, occupation, religion, tribe, creed or other characteristics, in fact under universal health coverage, all animals are equal; but some are more equal than others.”

Prof Onwujekwe further disclosed that the World Health Organisation ranked Nigerian health system 187th out of 191 countries surveyed, superior only to four countries engulfed in armed conflicts, adding that the major criterion that lowered the ranking of Nigeria was the issue of poor level of financial access to healthcare.

“Most developed countries have organised their healthcare systems around the principle of universal coverage which requires that everyone within a country can access the same range of services according to needs and preferences, regardless of income, social status, or residency, and that people are empowered to use these services”, the university don remarked.

He noted that improving the functionality of health systems and achieving equitable access and affordability of healthcare services to all is encapsulated in current efforts to universal coverage.

Professor Onwujekwe disclosed that in 2010, World Health Organisation (WHO), proposed four target indicators for countries to use to measure progress towards achieving universal coverage, and enumerated them to include total health expenditure of at least 4 per cent-5 per cent of the gross domestic product, Out-of pocket spending of not more than 30-40 per cent of total health expenditure, over 90 per cent of the population covered by pre-payment and risk pooling schemes, as well as close to 100 per cent coverage of population with social assistance and safety-net programmes.