NHF seeks integration of cardiovascular diseases into BHCPF, health insurance

Stakeholders have called for a need to support integration of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) into the basic healthcare provision fund (BHCPF) and social health insurance benefit packages in four states in Nigeria.

The four states are: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun.

The stakeholders at a roundtable meeting organised by Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF), in Lagos, last week, said that the government should ensure the integration of more Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs), especially CVDs into the state Social Health Insurance (SSHI) scheme.

A speaker at the event, a public health physician, Dr. Bolaji Adebiyi, said the roadmap to integration is first to identify the beneficiaries of the scheme.

He said, “Beneficiaries of the scheme must be identified and we should also inculcate routine screening for CVDs at the Primary Health Care (PHC) and community levels.

“PHC and Secondary Health Care (SHC) facilities must be well equipped with good infrastructure, appropriate equipment and adequate human and financial resources to manage CVDs. We should also ensure a two-way referral system between the PHC and SHC facilities.

“There should also be determination of provider mechanism of provision to the vulnerable in the society and ensure buy-in of National Council of Health.”

Adebiyi further said that there is a need to identify critical stakeholders, including People living with Non-communicable diseases (PLWNCDs) and to have high-level advocacy to include cancers and chronic respiratory diseases in BHCPF.

He also said that a high level advocacy should be made to the government at the state and national Level.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CrimsonBow sickle cell anaemia initiative, Miss Timi Edwin, said that the government and other stakeholders should ensure that there is adequate screening, treatment and care of PLWNCDs at the community, PHC and SHC levels.

Miss Edwin revealed that the state of PHC system is Nigeria is shocking as only about 20 per cent of 30,000 PHC facilities across Nigeria are fully functional.

She said, “Centres face problems, which include poor staffing, poor distribution of health workers, poor quality of health care services, poor condition of infrastructure and lack of supply of essential medications.

“To ensure continual monitoring and evaluation for sustainability, I urge multi-stakeholders; Government, private sectors, NGOs and individuals to adopt PHC facilities and PLWNCDs by providing resources for management of CVDs.”

Executive Director of NHF, Dr. Kingsley Akinroye, said that there is need to increase advocacy on BHCPF, as there is still a wide gap in that area.

He said, “There is a lot to be done on awareness as the level of awareness is still very poor in the country. We should make meaningful noise to ensure everyone down to the grass root level is aware of the BHCPF.

“We implore and encourage the government, private sectors, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), high profile individuals to enrol citizens as much as they can into the healthcare scheme either on a free basis or reduced prices.”