INTERVIEW
COMMENTS - Nigeria’s Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole - 1st July 2017
INTERVIEW
COMMENTS …States what govt see as landmark event
By Soni
Daniel, Northern Region Editor & Edoamaowo Udeme
FULL TEXT:
SATURDAY 01 JULY VANGUARD NEWS
We can’t run
Nigeria like this, Health Minister tells commissioners We can’t run Nigeria
like this, Health Minister tells commissioners ON JULY 1, 2017.
Q: Nigeria’s
Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole, speaks on health matters in the
country. Excerpts:
Can
you share your thoughts on what your sector has done in two years and the
challenges you have?
(Cuts in) I
have been part of the healthcare system for a long time and I have seen a lot
of it over the years. I have been a critic of the health system
before now and now I am inside the system. I used to say then that we should
have this or that but I have come to see the whole gamut of the system and we are
working very hard to make it work better for all. That is what I can say about
that.
Q: Professor
Isaac Adewole So given that hindsight what are you doing differently?
What I will
do differently is what I call strategic engagement. I will be
focused, I will pick a few things and hit them right. I will not
deceive myself and the people of Nigeria that I can solve all the
problems in the health sector in just one day. It is not just possible and we
must be ready to tell Nigerians nothing but the plain truth so that they can
continue to know and understand what is happening. For that reason, I have told
myself that I will do policy formulation, I will do strategic
rearrangements of issues and programmes involving the health care system in
Nigeria and a few others. Accordingly, and in consideration of the things that
stare us in the face, I want to build cancer centres across Nigeria for early
detection and treatment. I also want to tackle Malaria and HIV scourge to the
barest minimum. We need to take it one after the other.
Q: But
having been in the saddle for about two years now as the minister in charge of
health matters in Nigeria, what would you point at as your achievements?
I do not
like to talk as if I am counting my achievements. No. I would want Nigerians to
do the assessment by themselves and come to a position as to what we have done
so far. But I would simply say that since I came on board, I have put in place
for Nigeria a National Health Policy, I started an innovative health care
programme called ‘Save-One-Million-Lives Initiative’, I
kick-started another health scheme called ‘Rapid Results
Initiative’ that has so far offered free surgery to no fewer than
10, 000 Nigerians. I also initiated a Joint Venture Agreement on Vaccines,
which has led to the production of vaccines by Nigeria, something that had long
been stopped before now. I also initiated the Central Posting of Health
Officers. I declared 2017 as a year of accelerated Tuberculosis Case Fund and I
started 909090 for HIV. These are the modest things I have done and I will
continue to take necessary steps that will propel the system to a higher height
for the overall interest of the country.
Q: Have you
been able to draw a road map for the country within this period?
That’s why
we are concentrating on documentation. Apart from Policy
development for the country, we are also working on strategic and development
plan to give the country a robust health system.
Q: What does
that mean?
That is
translating the policy into action and costing what the interventions will
require. We are in the process of developing that. We have called
all the stakeholders for a meeting including all the health commissioners in
the country and we have shared the strategic document with them. I am also
working on the situational report on health in Nigeria for submission to the
Federal Executive Council. That document will show at a glance the current
health situation in the country, what is needed to be done to change the
situation, the cost implications, the sources of funding available for such
interventions and many other indices.
Q: So, what
are you proposing as likely sources of health funding? Are we likely going to
push it into a First Line charge given its importance?
Not in that
sense. Already, the National Assembly has passed the National Health Act giving
1% of national revenue to the health sector and we are hoping that we can be
able to draw that in 2018. But we must keep on engaging with relevant agencies
of government to get things right in the health sector because our position is
that we need to get it right in the health sector if all other sectors must be
right. Health is necessary for agriculture, education, infrastructure and
others to thrive. In other words, without healthy citizens, there can be no
serious development and growth in the country.
Q: Will that
lead to a situation where the National Health Insurance (NHI) will be made a
right and not a privilege for few Nigerians?
Q: Of
course, that is what we are aiming at. We want to make the National Health
Insurance Scheme to be compulsory and useful to all Nigerians. We need enough
money to fund the scheme to be able to achieve our target or expectation. That
is why we need money from other sources apart from the National health
insurance scheme. In Thailand for example, the national health scheme is funded
strictly with tobacco tax while in the UK, it is funded with direct taxation
from the citizens. So, we are looking at many options and the committee will
come up with innovative approaches. To me, that would be the landmark event for
the health sector. One worrisome issue in the health sector is that Nigeria
does not have an early warning mechanism whereby the citizens are alerted
before a major outbreak of epidemic strikes. You can see that in the recent
outbreaks of Meningitis, Lassa fever, Ebola, Measles and others, Nigerians were
taken unawares. Why does this continue to happen in a big country like ours? I
will pick each of them one by one to tell you that that solution lies in every
Nigerian. In July 2015, in one particular village in Niger called Fuka, we lost
17 people one after another, and we did not get to know until six months later.
The meningitis outbreak started in first week of December but we only got to
know about it in February. It shows you the disconnect in the health system in
the country. The States are not communicating their health challenges with us
at the federal level and we cannot do magic. What we need is a really functional
system whereby the local governments will communicate with states and states
will communicate with the federal government for all of us to be on top of
every situation that develops or about to develop. If one person develops
meningitis in Zamfara and we get to know the second day, we would dispatch our
surveillance officers there, we will quickly treat and vaccinate people around
there and it will be safe, but a situation where we do not get to know for
months then things could become terrible and that is what has been happening.
We have called all health commissioners for a meeting and informed them that we
cannot run this country this way. One case is all you need, alert
us on time. Call the CEO of Nigeria Center for Diseases Control (NCDC) and me.
I have personally sent letters to all the governors and health commissioners in
the country on this matter. Many of the outbreaks are predictable and
appropriate preventive measures are possible for each situation. For instance,
Lassa Fever will likely occur during dry season, Meningitis will occur around
November/ December, Cholera will start April/May, Measles, December/January and
so on. Now, given that understanding, we are writing to all the states to say
please alert us in case of any trace of any of these outbreaks. If you also
visit any of these places and notices anything that looks like a threat to
health, please alert us. If you also visit our website we have
“Global Advisory Warning”, which gives warning on these issues. Even on my Twitter
handle, I have warning on Meningitis, Measles and Cholera just to show you that
we recognize that what we need is communication. There is a local proverb that
says when you have a sunken eye, you start crying from far off. Where we do not
have the resources to treat everybody then we must start early to prevent such
ailments from occurring. We do not have money to vaccinate
everybody. Don’t bother about what people say, oh! They would have done this
and that but where is the money? The meningitis vaccine is about £20 averaging
for the five ravaged states we need to vaccinate about 21 million people. 21
million by £20 is £420 million. That is more than my health budget. So if I am
asked as a public health person what I should do, I will quickly do a trick, I
will tell you to quickly let me know your problem on time and quickly move
people there to solve the problem than vaccinate everybody when we do not have
the resources.
Q: Is that
what has given rise to the Rapid Response Initiative, RRI?
Partly. But
let me say that the Rapid Response Initiative, RRI is distinct,
peculiar and strictly President Muhammadu Buhari’s health initiative, something
I would like to call ‘Buhari Care’. What is it all about? Rapid Result
Initiative (RRI) is a project aimed at transforming the lives of Nigerians. It
is tailored by the Buhari government to give quick and free surgery to those in
need of such vital service, screen Nigerians for diseases, check their blood
and sugar levels, de-worm them and render necessary health care to those who
are very poor and incapable of paying for such services. This is geared towards
transforming their lives.
Q: How do
you select the beneficiaries?
The Social
Services Department of the Health Ministry developed some guidelines to identify
the poor, the jobless in different parts of the country and we used the data to
select the beneficiaries. Besides, when we go down for the exercise neighbours
help to identify those who are really poor and we help them. The result has
been very wonderful so far with lots of testimonies following each medical
mission.
Q: How many
of such missions have you carried out so far?
We have so
far carried out the outreach in 40 teaching hospitals and medical centres with
5000 surgery and 10, 000 people screened nationwide.
Q: The
Millennium Development Goals, MDGs have come and gone and we didn’t achieve
much. Any lesson learnt from the failure?
(Cuts in) We
did a lot but we couldn’t meet many of the targets. I think we should also do
something about our achievements. I think there is a difference between “We did
not do well and we haven’t achieved all targets”. We did well but we did not
achieve the targets, let’s celebrate ourselves.
Q: Where do
you see Nigeria in the current Sustainable Development Goals 3 as regards
achieving its health target come 2030?
Goal 3 is
about Universal Health Coverage and we are committed to it, we are not only
doing SDG 3 alone, but we are also partnering to achieve SDG 2. We are part of
the Zero Hunger Initiative and we work with Ministry of Agriculture and former
President Olusegun Obasanjo to develop the zero hunger document. The committee
is meeting presently in Benue and we are part of that meeting to strategise on
how to make more quality food available to end hunger and malnutrition in the
country.
Q: So are
you seeing that goal being achieved?
Certainly,
by 2030 we will be there
Q: With all
these measures being put in place why do we still have malnutrition in the IDP
camps across the North east?
(Cuts in)
Who said so?
Q: We have
pictures on social media …
(Cuts in) I
don’t know how the pictures came about but I came back from Maiduguri on Sunday
and I visited one of the camps and the children there looked so healthy. So, I
think some of those pictures are not current pictures Some of them are pictures
being used to raise money. Like I keep saying, we must praise what
we are doing, we must praise the effort of the Federal Government,
NEMA and the Government of Borno State for doing an excellent job.
Q: Why do
you think Nigerians still relish going abroad for medical treatment?
(Cuts in) Do
you want my honest comment?
Q: Of course
yes!
Number one
is that over the years, we have not invested in health. Two, we treated health
more as a humanitarian gesture whereas health is business. It’s a
business that has a compassionate face but it is business first and foremost.
Q: Why?
If you open
a hospital today and say it is for charity in two years’ time it will close
down. Thirdly, we need sustained investment in health, we also need
to recognise that without health, we cannot achieve anything. That is why we
are now changing the narratives that health is the requirement and ingredients
for reducing poverty,. It is ingredient for generating wealth, promoting sheer
prosperity and promoting socioeconomic development. Most countries that have
achieved improvement in socioeconomic development across the world first
achieved improvement in health. That is why so our narrative must
change: We must look at health with a different lens and as a must-do and a
really serious matter. Nigeria requires N100m annually to eradicate Neglected
Tropical Diseases - Adewole May 31, 2016 2017 Budget: We will be transparent
with our figures - Adewole January 4, 2017 Our health professionals have turned
medical tourism into racket November 22, 2016.’’
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/cant-run-nigeria-like-health-minister-tells-commissioners/''
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/cant-run-nigeria-like-health-minister-tells-commissioners/''
Joseph
Ana.
Africa Center for Clin Gov Research &
Patient Safety
@ HRI West Africa
Group - HRI WA
Consultants in
Clinical Governance Implementation
Publisher: Health and
Medical Journals
8 Amaku Street Housing
Estate, Calabar
Cross River State, Nigeria
Cross River State, Nigeria
Phone No.
+234 (0) 8063600642
No comments:
Post a comment