Journalists Demand Improved Funding Of Health Sector

The Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ) have appealed to the Federal Government to allocate one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation to the health sector as prescribed in the National Health Act.
The group also called for the prompt release of approved funds and judicious use of all monies made available to the sector.
ANHEJ made the calls in Abuja at its maiden Health Communications Conference which had the theme “Persistent Poor Implementation of the Health Sector Budget: The Role of the Media” on Sunday.
President of the association, Marcus Fatunmole, said it had become imperative for government to fully implement the National Health Act, given the worrisome state of health services in the nation.
Fatunmole said that a large percentage of the less-privileged citizens of the country were dying due to poor access to health services adding that Nigeria’s health infrastructures and services would drastically improve if government fully implements the health Act.
“Our maternal mortality rate is the highest in the world, we parade a quarter of global malaria burden and we are among the only three polio-endemic countries in the world.
“ Nigeria at present has one of the highest number of acutely malnourished children in the world; a situation that has been worsened by activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
“Nigeria loses about 2,300 children who are below five years of age and 145 women of child bearing age every day,
“ Our country is faced with increasing growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension and mental-related ailment,’’ he said.
Fatunmole appealed to the government to commit enough resources to the sector to allow the masses access health care at affordable cost.
He maintained that Nigeria could not significantly attain the Sustainable Development Goals if the Act, especially the portion demanding “at least one per cent” of the consolidated revenue allocation to the health sector, was not implemented.
He said Part 1 (1) c of the Act states that National Health System shall “provide for persons living in Nigeria the best possible health service within the limits of available resources.
“And that the National Health System in (e) shall “protect, promote and fulfill the rights of the people of Nigeria to have access to health care services.
“The Act furthered in Part 1 (3) sub-section 3 that “without prejudice to the prescription by the Minister in Section 3 (1) of this Act, all Nigerians shall be entitled to basic minimum package of health services.
“The question to ask today is that are all Nigerians truly enjoying any minimum health package”.
On his part, Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, called on the media to continue to advocate for accountability, increased funding and good governance in the sector.
He expressed delight with the initiative and said the ministry would be more open to the media regarding information dissemination among others.
Adewole appealed to the media to put health issues in the front burner to attain the needed improvement in the sector for the benefit of all citizens, adding that investment in health yields more dividends than any sector of the economy.
The minister said “media represents a segment that is considered one of the most important partners in the health sector.
“The role of communications in health goes beyond the traditional reporting and coverage of activities that most people would naturally expect.