The Nigerian Medical Association on Friday
appealed to the Federal Government to increase
budgetary allocation to the health sector to
improve healthcare delivery in the country.
Dr. Aniekeme Uwah, NMA South-South Caucus
Chairman, made the appeal in an interview with
the News Agency of Nigeria in Uyo.
Uwah, who also spoke on the association’s
forthcoming South-South Retreat, said that the
challenges confronting the nation’s healthcare
delivery were due to inadequate budgetary
provision for the sector.
Uwah noted that an African Heads of State
Summit held in Abuja in 2001 agreed that at least
15 per cent of national budget of African
countries be allocated to health.
He said that Nigeria had never allocated more
than six per cent of its budget to the health
sector.
Uwah said: “That is why you see that doctors in
the South-South going on strike because
budgetary allocation is not up to what they
expect from the Federal Government.”
He recalled that the National Council of Health
meeting held at Umuahia in 2016 passed 58
resolutions on healthcare, 21 per cent of which
were implemented by the government.
Uwah, also the NMA Chairman in Akwa Ibom
State, said the nation’s health sector was in a
“state of decay” and required urgent government
intervention.
He said: “Recently, a World Health Organisation
report showed that out of 191 countries it
accessed, Nigeria rated 187 in terms of
healthcare delivery.”
He said the NMA would assemble doctors from
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and
Rivers States to look at the healthcare service
delivery in the South-South zone during the
retreat.
According to him, the doctors will gather in Uyo
to brainstorm on the challenges bedevilling the
country’s health sector and proffer possible
solutions.
He also stated that a communiqué is expected to
be issued at the end of the retreat.
Alabatvnews.
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