President mulls upward review of budgetary allocations to health sector

President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed plans to upwardly review budgetary allocations to the health sector.

He dropped the hint yesterday at the State House, Abuja, when he received the new executive of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

Buhari said the review would reflect government’s priority of ensuring that Nigerians get better healthcare, especially in specialised areas.

He said: “We place quality healthcare on our priority list, and we are already marching on with the Primary Health Care services, as some state governors have bought into it. We are committed to universal health care.”

The president assured the NMA leaders that the government was already considering the Whitepaper from the Ahmed­ Yayale-led panel on Inter-professional Harmony in the Healthcare Sector.

He said this would ensure that there is more harmonised working relationships among medical practitioners.

President Buhari, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, however urged the medical practitioners to always consider their profession as a “divine call,’’ especially in taking decisions that directly impact on the lives of Nigerians.

He urged them to engage other means of negotiation for better working conditions instead of strikes

Buhari explained that: “The medical profession is regarded as a divine call, because of the strategic role they play in the lives of human beings.”

He commended the NMA and its members on some of the medical feats being achieved in the country, such as the separation of conjoined twins, organ transplants, heart surgeries and treatment of cancer patients.

The president promised that the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council would soon be constituted to further enhance service­ delivery and regulation of the sector.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ohanire, said a newly released basic health care provision would further focus on improving service delivery to Nigerians through the Primary Health Care.