Group Wants Audiological Services In NHIS Schedule

Chairperson/Interim Presi
dent of the Nigerian Audiology Association, Dr Irene Okeke-Igbokwe, has appealed to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)  to include audiological services in its schedule.
Okeke-Igbokwe made the call in an address at the First Audiology Health Conference/Exhibition, organised by the association in Lagos, recently.
With  theme of the conference as “Making Hearing Health a Global Priority, Audiology in Nigeria-Challenges and Prospects’’, Okeke-Igbokue  said that the World Health Organisation had noted that there were 360 million people in the world with disabling hearing loss.
This, she said, represented 5.3 per cent of the world’s population and 32 million of them were children.
“Our mission as qualified audiologists is to use this association as a platform and launching pad of the practice of audiology in Nigeria.
“Hearing loss is preventable through public health actions that include immunisation, healthy ear and hearing care habits and effective treatment for both acute and chronic ear conditions and the creation of audiology courses in schools across the country will go a long way in boosting research in the field and also benefit patients who need such services.
She maintenanced that association would value diversity and treat all patients fairly and equally, without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, creed, religion, disability, sex and sexual orientation.
“The association is to vigorously pursue the establishment of facilities in some of our higher institutions to increase the professionalisation and qualified development of audiology practitioners.
Identifying of the challenges facing audiologist as poor consumer awareness of audiology, hearing aid dispensing competition from big-box companies, proliferation of quacks and insufficient number of audiologists, Igbokwe noted that deliberate efforts have been made in recent past to facilitate the establishment of audiology departments in selected universities across the country, regretting however that  in spite of efforts to reach out to the authorities, nothing much had been achieved.
She said “Several letters have been written to the National Universities Commission and key stakeholders in the citadel of learning but these letters have not seen the light of day.
“We also seek the support of the three tiers of government to assist in setting up a scholarship fund to facilitate the training of at least one audiologist from each state every year,”
The keynote speaker and former Chief of Army Staff,  retired Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi    said that government never thought of establishing audiology centre in the country.