FMOH Unveils Plans to Boost HealthCare

By Chukwuma Muanya

The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has unveiled plans to boost healthcare delivery in the country. Top on the FMOH plans is the National Strategic Health Development Plan for Nigeria (NSHDPN) 2010 to 2015. Under the NSHDPN, the FMOH has set eight priority areas to concentrate on and to give an audited account every year of its stewardship.

The FMOH has also developed its own version of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a National Health Partnership Declaration (NHPD), which has been signed unto by 15 governors. The NHPD was adopted after the first Presidential Health Summit held recently in Abuja.

Director of Health Planning/ Research and Statistics, FMOH, Dr. Mohammed Leki, told The Guardian: "There are eight priority areas we want to address in the health sector between 2010 and 2015. We have started a different way of planning that is the structure of what we are doing, planning better, which is called the NSHDPN 2010 and 2015. The other thing we have done which is very important is that we have our own accountability framework, which we call the result framework.

"Now, we have identified eight priority areas. Some of these priority areas are issues of governance in health and accountability and stewardship. Who do you hold responsible for something when things are not working? So, the way it is set up is that for the eight priority areas, there are specific targets/goals we set for ourselves and those goals are the same at the State and the Local Government Areas (LGA) levels.

"The other thing we are doing is that we had a summit, a presidential summit. What was different about it was that there was a summit declaration, which was signed or is being signed by the President, the Vice President and all the state governors in this country.

"This is unique. You heard about MDGs. Nigeria is signatory to MDGs. So we are doing our own version, which we are having a NHPD, which the President has signed unto and as we speak now, about 15 governors have signed on."

Other plans by the FMOH are to upgrade four teaching hospitals in the country to become specialised centres for treating cardiovascular/heart diseases, kidney/renal diseases and cancers-cervical, breast and prostate.

The FMOH also plans to start accreditation of hospitals, strengthen regulatory bodies in a bid to improve standards in the sector, and set up a sanctioning system to deal with erring professionals/hospitals; to work with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Atomic Agency (IAA) and the International Cancer Centre Abuja (ICCA) on cancer prevention strategies; to equip additional seven cancer treatment centres with funds from IAA; and to have distributed 62 million Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) before the end of next year in a bid to halve the malaria burden.

Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, told The Guardian in an interview: "...We are proposing in the budget this year to upgrade four teaching hospitals next year. It is not just the same level of upgrading we did before. The level of upgrading we did before was to bring them to a standard comparable to any teaching hospital, but without the issue of specialisation. What we are going to do in the next year is to actually begin to get them to specialise in one area or the other. So we are hoping to be able to do cardiovascular disease, renal disease, cancers and all of that. So, that we can have these hospitals function at a different levels, so there is a clear paradigm shift."

Osotimehin said one major issue that confronts the health sector is that of standards. "No matter what we do, no matter what equipment we put, no matter what else we have been able to do, there is a matter of standards. How do we maintain standards? How do you ensure that people will do what you expect them to do? I think that next year we are going to address that," he said.

He added: "So, I am looking at a proposal for instance, work with state commissioners of health to start the issue of accreditation of hospitals and make sure that they deliver on what they promise; and strengthen our regulatory bodies so that they actually begin to do continuing education for nurses, for doctors, for pharmacists and at the same time set up sanction system to deal with those who might not do their work very well."

On whether the health budget for 2010 is going to continue to dwindle as it has been doing for a while now, Osotimehin said: "What we are proposing in the budget this year, I think will be adequate to maintain our systems. I cannot tell you the percentage of the national budget is for health. Until the National Assembly finishes with the budget, it will be presumptuous of us to make a statement. All I know is that what we are proposing is more than what we got last year."

The health chief said the ministry has started massive role out of ITNs across the country. Osotimehin explained: "We started the massive role out for ITNs in Kano where we distributed over four million nets, and in Anambra where we distributed about two million nets. And I can tell you that in those two places we have gone back to see the utilization, and it is about 60 to 61 per cent. We need to increase the advocacy about it, so that utilization will go to 80 per cent.

"We have started now with the process of distributing nets to about 10 states - Sokoto, Kebbi, Ogun, and several others- and this take off is going to go on till the end of next year. By the end of next year we would have distributed 62 million nets."

On the equipping of seven more cancer centres in the country and plans to tackle the disease, Osotimehin said: "You know we have a national cancer plan and that is what is driving this. We have also under the leadership of the First Lady, doing a lot of cancer awareness at this point in time. I think prevention is going to be the issue. We must drive prevention because treatment is expensive and many of these things can be prevented. I have directed that all our hospitals must have a cancer prevention unit. So that they will be able to do pap smear for cervical cancer, they will be able to teach people how to examine their breast for breast cancers, and they will be able to do Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) for men. Not just to make sure that we just talk about it, but we are providing avenues for people to check
themselves and be able to prevent it.

"We are going to work with WHO, IAA and ICCA to do series of prevention workshops. ICCA is the brain-child of the First Lady. As you are aware, the head of the IAA just visited Nigeria and this is the first country he visited after he became the head. Nigeria has now paid her counterpart fund to the IAA and we are in the process of paying it, which will enable us to equip an additional seven ancer treatment centres in Nigeria apart from the nuclear medicines. So we are moving in the right direction."

Guardian.