A Consultant Public Health Physician, Prof. Tanimola Akande has urged Civil Society Organisations, religious and traditional groups to take advocacy to government at all levels to revatilise the country’s health system.
Akande, a Professor of Public Health at the University of Ilorin, Kwara, made the call at a webinar titled, “Monitor Your Health” organised by Monitor Healthcare Ltd., a medical telecommunications company held on Friday in Lagos.
The webinar was also organised in partnership with Areadoc, a smart mobile app, driven by the need to provide quality healthcare solutions to everyone irrespective of time.
According to him, the issue of health should be a burning agenda for all in order for people to know the challenges facing the system and suggest solutions.
“We need the CSOs, religious and traditional groups at all levels such that they can raise voices and make advocacies to government, so that all things that need to be done should be done.
“Sometimes our leaders do not see the reality on ground, and therefore, be made to listen and do the needful.
“The citizenry has the role to hold our leaders accountable,” he said.
The professor noted that the health system was weak and lacked the right leadership, political will, and appropriate funding.
He said, although, there were policies in place, yet implementing those policies remained a challenge.
“There is need to scale up very fast the health insurance scheme as many are getting into catastrophic expenditure, because of accessing healthcare.
“Also, there are quite a lot of unnecessary deaths, because certain equipment are not in place.
“We have the best of brains in Nigeria; that is why when they leave the shores of the country, they perform excellently.
“The brain drain is terrifying and we need to do something to prevent it from being at the rate at which it is currently; we have a ratio of four doctors to 10,000 patients, ” Akande said.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Director, Monitor Healthcare Ltd., Dr Femi Ogunremi, called on everyone to make the health system a robust one.
Ogunremi said: “This country has potentials; let us aggregate, get our local leaders to know the impact the challenges have on people’s lives.
“The leaders should advocate on behalf of the citizens to the government to rebuild the health system, so that it becomes more strengthened and efficient for all,’’ he said.