Expert advocates citizen-focused new health system for Nigeria

Emeritus Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe has called for a new health system that is tailored to the needs of the ordinary man in the street.


He said this in Ibadan while speaking at at the first Annual Branch Conference of the Institute of Health Service Administrators.

While speaking on “Quality Management in the 21st Century Healthcare Services”, Akinkugbe said attending to the health needs of the nation can only come about by the concerted action of all stakeholders.

He noted that the quality of life of many Nigerians cannot improve unless some radical changes are wrought by government with the active support and cooperation of administrators in the local setting.

"Any society that treats health with the brush of levity cannot be described as taking economic development seriously," he said.

 

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“The various parameters of economic progress culminating in the Human Development Index cannot be consummated positively until due attention is paid to health and education.

“UNESCO prescribes 25 per cent of the national budget of countries for education and World Health Organisation at least 15 per cent to health. We know that there are competing claims from other sectors in the economy but attention to education and health has the over arching capacity to synergise progress in other areas of development."

He said some countries had developed strategies such as the non-contributory insurance scheme to take care of the health of poor people in their society, adding that it was time that all stakeholders in health related fields also come up with a system of care that will meet the health needs of all Nigerians.

“In this, hospital administrators like you have a crucial role to play. You must be prepared to substitute for the business gurus of the commercial world, men and women with the passion for efficiency and determined to make maximum use of dwindling resources, ready and willing to partner with the private sector to enhance quality of health care.”

"The more reflective and realistic health ‘experts’ know too painfully well that, as war is too important to leave to Generals, health is too important to be leave to doctors.
 

“The new thinking will rejuvenate the tertiary health care system in a way we may not have dared to expect, and by so doing we will be making good health available to a much wider percentage of our people – rich and poor.

“The imperatives of quality, cost, delivery, safety and morale constitute the bedrock for ensuring enduring customer satisfaction in this and future generations,” Akinkugbe said.