•Federal Government should pay special attention to the health sector to ease the deadly impact of recession
Groaning under the yoke of economic recession that has further pauperised them, Nigerians have discovered that life is – indeed, as the English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, said in the 17th Century – solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. This is eloquently borne out by the fact that modern healthcare has become more unavailable now, with many taking to self-medication and quack doctors. Poverty is biting; hunger rages and reigns and diseases that could have been easily treated in the hospitals are taking a toll on productivity as they take longer time to treat where they do not snuff life out of patients. The situation is pathetic.
Newspapers are awash with stories of people who commit suicide over their inability to take care of themselves, family members and wards, while others who could not even afford what it takes to feed the family simply watch as death strikes all around them. In the past two years when the national income has shrunk and the cost of living soared, the health sector has been worse hit than most others. The few who could still attend hospitals queue in public clinics where doctors are overwhelmed.
The private hospitals watch helplessly as they struggle to meet up their cost. The cost of maintaining facilities have shot up, imported equipment, medication and consumables are out of the reach of many. Unable to fully pass the cost to patients, medical facilities are on the verge of closing down in many parts of the country. The cost of diesel and petrol to supply power has more than doubled in the period; yet, there is no alternative as public power supply has simply collapsed.
The Federal Government should realise that the health and lives of Nigerians take precedence over other things. Already, poor nutrition has continued to imperil the health of the citizenry as many cannot afford a single balanced meal a day. Children and pregnant women are the worst hit. In a country where child and maternal mortality was already one of the highest in the world before the recession, the country has sunk even further. Doctors have had to jack up the price for Caesarian section for pregnant women at the risk of losing baby or mother, or both; thus shutting the facility out of the reach of families in need of it.
We call on the federal, state and local governments to pay special attention to public health. Over the years, little attention has been paid to preventive medicine. This has become imperative in light of current developments. Besides, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) should be given priority. It helps to pool resources together to save lives and improve health condition. The tertiary health institutions to which primary and secondary cases are being taken cannot cope and a caring government should ensure that they are relieved by tackling the crisis at the grassroots.
The Federal Government, in particular, should ensure that the crippling duties on medical equipment and medication are reduced, if they could not be suspended. It is no longer acceptable that few public servants are enlisted on the NHIS. Given the high level of unemployment and the growing inability of private firms to meet their obligations to their employees, the net must be widened to ensure access to quality health care.s
Nigeria is the seventh most populous country in the world and, according to the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), 64 per cent of the people live below the poverty line. Many wait to die upon diagnosis of strange ailments inflicted on them by the harsh economic environment. This is a period of emergency in the health sector. The National Council on Health, comprising the Minister of Health and all the state health commissioners should brainstorm on how to improve access to improved health care. Health education is so important that the local governments and educational institutes should be engaged in disseminating information on what should be done by the citizenry to improve health care. Health is wealth. At no time is this true than now.
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