DR BETTA EDU CALLS FOR FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE UNDER ONE ROOF IN ALL STATES.

NIGERIA GOVERNORS FORUM: DR BETTA EDU MAKES A CASE FOR FUNDING FROM FG TO SUPPORT STATES ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE THROUGH PRIMARY HEALTH REVITALIZATION AND STATE HEALTH INSURANCE !
CALLS FOR FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE UNDER ONE ROOF IN ALL STATES.

At the last Nigerian Governor's Forum held in Abuja, the dynamic Director General of the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency Dr Betta Edu, made a strong case calling bluntly on the Federal Government to keep to its side of the bargain. In her speech which elicited a standing ovation, she drew the attention of the federal government to many unkept promises in the health sector which has set the nation backwards in its quest to achieve Universal Health coverage and a stronger health system.
" Over 70 percent of our population depend on primary Health Care services. In immediate past, a lot of attention was paid by federal government to build big teaching hospitals across the nation while state governments concentrated on building general hospitals and specialist centers (some of which are not functional) leaving the primary health care centers and system which Prof. Ransom kuti advocated for and tried to build; to rot. The question remains how many of our people can truly access these facilities, how many can afford treatment there, what is the travel time to get there from their homes in the villages. This abnormal situation has made our people resort to traditional homes, prayer houses and fetish means to cure diseases. It has also increased our maternal mortality, underfive mortality and further crippled our Health system, increasing medical tourism to other countries (India, London, Ghana, Kenya, Dubai etc) and doubling flight of grossly inadequate health workers out of Nigeria.
The policy focus of President Buhari's government to revitalize primary Health Care as a veritable tool to achieve universal health coverage brought a lot of hope, however it has been a lot of talk with very little action. Two years down, basic health care funding is yet to get on the national budget, 10,000 Primary Health centers promised across the country is yet to be achieved, paucity of health workers across states, too many health workers without jobs, federal government support to states to help them kick off their state health insurance scheme which will provide universal health coverage and protect families from catastrophic health expenditure that could further impoverish them is still a mirage. Our Health system is still epileptic and unable to respond to public health emergencies or disease outbreak (so you have cerebrospinal meningitis killing over 400 persons in a blink, Lassa fever as well as other diseases claiming lives, polio yet to be eradicated etc).
If we had one Plane Crash every day in Nigeria, am sure that will make both National and international news. But here we are with over 3000 women dying daily during child birth and it doesn't make the news, it has become so common place that our hearts no longer skip a beat when a woman dies. It is a system problem which everyone has a role to play, so we can fix same immediately. Unless there is a deliberate plan to reduce the Nigeria population by any means possible.