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The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the death of Dr. Michael Umoh, a personnel at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) who died on duty.
The resolution was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Adedayo Adesola at plenary yesterday.
Moving the motion, Adesola said the importance of medical personnel as the fulcrum of the healthcare delivery system could not be overemphasized.
He recalled that on September 17, Umoh, a medical officer on residency programme in the LUTH reportedly died after spending 72 hours on duty in the Neurosurgery unit of the institution.
According to him, there is a recent related incident of a young female medical doctor who lost her life due to elevator failure in a general hospital, which could have been avoided with improved working conditions.
“There have been several other reports of medical personnel dying as a result of harsh working conditions and other forms of negligence, thus robbing the country of its best brains;
“Such cases have reinforced the agitation of National Association of Resident Doctors, Nigeria Medical Association and other associated bodies for improved conditions of service.
“This is seen in the recent industrial strike embarked upon by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to press home their demands,” he said.
In his ruling, Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, mandated the Committees on Health Institutions and Labour and Employment Institutions to carry out the investigation and report back within six weeks. He said the aim was to ensure that medical personnel in Nigeria work under favourable conditions.
The House observed a minute of silence in honour of the deceased doctors. It also resolved to investigate alleged mismanagement of funds and other irregularities at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion by Esosa Iyawe. In the motion titled, “Alleged Mismanagement of Funds and Other Irregularities in the operations of NHIA”, Iyawe said the NHIA, formerly known as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), was established to ensure effective implementation of the National Health Insurance Policy.
The lawmaker said it was also meant to address the gaps in getting affordable treatment as well as ensure universal access to quality healthcare for all Nigerians;
He said the Federal Government had, over the years, driven the Health Insurance Policy through budgetary allocation under the management of NHIA and some Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs).
Iyawe said HMOs were engaged and funded by the government to play an intermediary role in the implementation of the scheme by providing a wide range of medical services to enrollees.
The lawmaker said in spite of huge budgetary allocations, records had shown that only a negligible three per cent of Nigerians in the formal sector have access to health insurance.
He added that more than 170 million Nigerians were left without health insurance, adding that the scheme had been fraught with poor service delivery by the HMOs
Iyawe said that there had been poor service delivery on the part of the healthcare service providers, as evidenced by the high level of dissatisfaction among enrollees.
This, he added ,had discouraged many enrollees from recommending the scheme to potential subscribers.
The lawmaker said he was disturbed by reports that some hospitals do not give patients ,covered by NHIA, prescribed drugs from their main pharmacies. .
Iyawe said the reports suggested that the drugs given by the erring hospitals at the other pharmacies were of low quality.
The lawmaker said that there were allegations that some HMOs failed to remit funds to the healthcare providers.
He said what all of the unscrupulous practices meant was that funds allocated for the implementation of the National Health Insurance Policy were being mismanaged.
According to him, 25 years after the commencement of the programme ,only about four million out of
of about 200 million Nigerians are covered under the scheme.
He said this was contrary to the claim by the NHIA that over 10 million Nigerians are enrolled in the programme.
Iyawe argued that the implementation of the scheme had been characterised by corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, including irregularities among HMOs and ill-treatment of enrollees by healthcare providers.
The House, therefore, mandated the Committee on Healthcare Services to investigate alleged mismanagement of funds.
