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By Doris Obinna
Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Association (AHPA) have once again urged President Bola Tinubu to appoint a non-physician health minister, while renewing their opposition to the sale of teaching hospital facilities to private profiteers.
In a letter to the President, signed by acting national secretary for the national president, JOHESU and AHPA, Matthew Ajurotu alerted other health professionals that the sale of the teaching hospitals would adversely affect their emoluments, contrary to their thinking.
They insisted that the sale of Federal Health Institutions (FHI) was not in the interest of 20 per cent of the sector’s workforce whose salaries represent 60 per cent of the personnel costs of the entire health workforce in FHIs.
The groups warned other medical professionals who have been assured that the sale of the facilities would not affect them should be cautious.
According to JOHESU and AHPA, those advocating for concessionaires were avaricious and would increase the healthcare problems and indices.
The group pleaded with well-meaning Nigerians to take action and prevent the Federal Government from privatising the FHIs. They noted that, in Lagos State, where the privatization of healthcare was started by same dramatis personae, the experiment has failed.
“The privatised pharmacies, which were about six at inception, have totally failed in at least four of the centres at huge losses to the Lagos State Government (LASG). At the federal level, the commercialization of the pharmacy facility of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, collapsed and the concession of Garki Hospital, Abuja, has never been a value-added decision.
“Today, that facility is a shadow of itself, as it has become inaccessible to a wide range of consumers of health in the Abuja area. We, therefore, strongly urge the Federal Government not to contemplate the privatisation of teaching hospital facilities to private profiteers.”
Listing the consequences of concessions, privatisation and outsourcing, the group added that it would not promote universal health coverage but would lead to inequity and inaccessibility, rather than efficiency and profitability.
The health workers further said that privatising teaching hospitals would increase the cost of medicines and diagnostic services, which will lead to higher out-of-pocket expenses, leading to more difficulty in accessing healthcare: “The privatisation of health facilities is a hurricane that compounds unproductivity in healthcare. The preponderance of Nigerians who live in poverty and squalor will not be able to access or afford health and its major components, which include the use of safe and efficacious drugs in the event of this dreaded reality.”
While alleging that the MDAs were adjudged to be the most corrupt sector, JOHESU urged the Federal Government to compel CEOs of FHIs, departments, and agencies to undergo health systems and hospital management courses.
While appealing to the President, they added that the government must incentivise all health professionals and workers who render services, including surgeries, pharmaceutical care, diagnostic services with agreed percentages of income realized as amenity allowances to compensate for their skills, time and the totality of their output.
“The way forward, therefore, is a regular audit of the proceeds of the amenity/quick service facilities in the FHIs in the quest for better standards.”
