Medical expert advocates increased funding for health

By Paul Efiong

A medical practitioner, Dr. Aminu Magashi Garba has called on members of the Nigeria Medical
Association, NMA, to come together to ensure adequate funding of tertiary health facilities in 2018.
Dr. Garba who stated this while speaking with newsmen said, “We need to come together and galvanisation action and ensure that by 2018 we have adequate funding to equip our tertiary health centres.”
Garba who made this call against the backdrop of the unprecedented level of Nigerians seeking medical attention outside the country said about 40,000 Nigerians collected visa from Indian embassy for medical tourism.
The medical expert who is also the Project Director of Community Health and Research Initiative quoted the minister of health, Professor Isaac Adewole as saying, “we have to improve our services and ensure that the quality of care we are seeking abroad can also be replicated in Nigeria.”
According to him, “The minister has mentioned that he is committed and working with cancer centres and other facilities that can attract the highest paid health professionals to sit at home and attend to the people of Nigeria, if we put heads together we can achieve that,” he said.
He said, the Nigerian Medical Association as a professional body of medical doctors has a lot of advocacy
to do both within the country and outside the country because they are members of the medical profession, “ I see them as a very strong advocacy group to really engage with government in ensuring that we have same services that any political actor can enjoy abroad.”
Commenting on the National Health Dialogue, he said, “This dialogue is to raise awareness around how government, Non Governmental Organisations NGOs, development partners, the media will come together to advocate for universal health coverage. Nigeria has committed so much to universal health coverage by immunising day old children as a government, and providing medical attention for women.
He said, “So we are aiming at galvanising action for organising ourselves and telling ourselves the truth about what is going on in Nigeria in the area of universal health coverage and how to achieve it by ensuring that government is committing money and ensuring that services provide insurance programme and also available drug and commodity at the facility level.”

from peoples daily