From: Judex Okoro, Calabar
The Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria (SOFON) has decried the non-implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by state governments across the country.
Speaking on the occasion of the 20th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference holding in Calabar, the President, Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria, Dr. Akin Moses, said this development has brought about low coverage of the scheme.
Moses said the theme, “Combating the Menace of Infectious Diseases in Low Resources Settings,” was in response to the emergence and re-emergence of devastating communicable diseases in the face of increasing population.
According to him, it was important for state governors across the country to place premium of funding of healthcare services in their respective states.
“NHIS services can only be offered in a functional health system, hence the need to ensure that the primary and secondary services are functioning. The NHIS coverage is said to be less than 5 per cent in Nigeria. Most state governments are not implementing the Health Insurance Scheme.
“We should not leave this burden to the federal government alone. The state governments have the capacity to make sure that we have three functional general hospitals in each of the senatorial districts across the country.
“We are ready to send our resident doctors to the rural areas to deliver health service and improve the health of our people. In view of our nationwide spread and polyvalent medical skills, it will be safe to state that Family Physicians attend to more patients in Nigeria compared to other specialties’’, he said.
Commending the Federal Government for the ongoing revitalisation of 10,000 Primary Health Care Centres across the country, the SOFON leader said it was important to involve Family Physicians in the scheme as such involvements would ensure that quality basic healthcare services are delivered to the majority of Nigerians irrespective of their location in the country.
He promised that the association will continue to collaborate and partner with relevant stakeholders in tackling the menace of infectious diseases in Nigeria.