The popular saying, ‘health is wealth’ is a fact. However, for a country like Nigeria, being the poverty capital of the world with dire economic statistics for the citizens means the health of the citizens has impaired productivity and the nation’s wealth. Hence many countries prioritise healthcare. Even the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) set health budget benchmarks that Nigeria has always kept in the breach.
Sadly, the highest ever health sector budget allocation was in 2020 at seven per cent (7%) and in 2021, but these fell short of 15 percent Abuja Declaration Commitment. So, the country is not yet considering the health sector as prime.
The low budgetary records harm the population, especially the productive sector, as young people too are victims. The ill-fortune of the sector is the nation’s poverty.
Primary and tertiary health institutions have returned to the proverbial ‘consulting clinics’ that military interventionists led by then Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in 1984 lamented and cited as one of the reasons they struck to sack the civilian government of late Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Even now, hospitals cannot pass as consulting clinics given the number of healthcare workers that have left the country due to poor service conditions and welfare in the last ten years.
A recent report that the University College Hospital, Ibadan management contemplated imposing a thousand-Naira fee on patients for electricity did not come to many as a surprise, even though the hospital recently issued a statement denying the report, saying it was an internal memo that wasn’t implemented. Rumours, however, had it that patients had paid for some days in July. Internal memo is no less a policy even if fear of scandal restrains implementation.
That UCH spoke out on the issue does not mean it is the only hospital or company that has been affected by the astronomical cost of diesel used to power heavy-duty generators in big and medium-size organizations like hospitals. The deregulation in the diesel market had meant prizes are determined by market forces. So, at almost nine hundred naira per litter, the overheads being incurred by small, medium and big companies can only be imagined.
The health sector needs constant power supply because hospitals operate heavy-duty equipment and life-saving gadgets. We cannot ascertain the number of deaths across the country because of incessant power failure. Incubators, surgery, emergency services and other highly sensitive procedures in Nigerian hospitals must be in a terrible shape and the result is many loss of lives, which government could prevent if assistance were extended to hospitals.
Recently, the United States experienced a shortage of baby formulae due to domestic challenges in the manufacturing sector. The government had to quickly make contingency plans to import baby formulae from Europe to keep babies alive. We are shocked that no tier of government, not even the Federal Government, seems to have bothered with the emergency in the health sector given its prime place in the lives of people. Health must be a priority for any government. If citizens aren’t healthy, the country is not just be poor, there might be few left to govern when leaders return from medical tourism abroad.
We urge government to declare a state of emergency in the health sector. The cost of saving citizens cannot be compared with the consequences of losing them. Healthcare should be a priority for a nation at the edge of the precipice. The UCH scenario is a reflection of the experience of other hospitals across the country. There is urgent need to save the health sector.
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