Why passage of National Health Bill is imperative -Expert

Worried that the Nigeria’s health sector is facing many challenges, which has led to poor health status of millions of its citizens, a United Kingdom-based Nigerian Health Care and Public Sector Transformation expert, Prince Tunde Adewopo, has called for urgent passage of the National Health Bill.
He made the call recently an interactive forum for health professionals in Abuja, saying: “The proposed National Health Bill will put enhanced pressure and responsibility on government to deliver on healthcare for the teeming population and should be passed into law without further delay.”
Adewopo, who had been involved in several healthcare schemes in the UK and other European countries, further stressed: ‘I strongly believe that through a system that delivers quality, integrated services and with the participation of all stakeholders, including all citizens, Nigeria will be a nation of healthy people.”
Listing gaps in the healthcare system, he said: “Regulatory bodies, such as National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) are firstly, the analytical capacity and capability to confirm that the problem in question is actually the root cause of bad performance; and secondly, quality improvement capacity and capability to resolve reasonably quickly.”
Quoting to Andy Cowper, he said excellent MBA management alone was not enough in the case of healthcare but that it needed to be linked in partnership with clinical leadership and vision.
Said he: “We need to note that sacking or suspending CEOs won’t fix the underlining problems that our system faces, as this has not solved or fixed any problem in the past three decades of our public health care.
“The fundamental factor that needs to change in our country is that we need a model of care that is fit for the 21st century, particularly, now that Nigeria’s population is growing rapidly, as we must ensure that we continue to learn and be flexible for the future.”