The House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions has called for urgent intervention fund to salvage the nation’s health care system and make it effective, efficient and competitive.

Speaking when the he led the committe members on oversight visit to the National Hospital in Abuja, the committee Chairman Hon Amos Magaji, who decried the poor state of infrastructure and the poor funding of the sector, said that the 10th National Assembly will support efforts aimed at repositioning the healthcare system for effective service delivery .

He said, “The health care system needs urgent intervention, some were done during COVID, which exposed the Nigeria healthcare system.

“Before COVID, so many hospitals didn’t even have an oxygen plant. So we are gradually growing though we are not where we want to be.

“We will do everything to support equipping our hospitals.Whether through Public-Private Partnerships arrangements or procurement or the ones we will get through intervention because even the budget for health is very poor.”

Magaji noted that the National Assembly is very concerned about health care delivery in Nigeria and would want the issue of medical tourism reversed by making the nation’s hospitals work so that people from other countries can seek medical treatment here in Nigeria.

He said, “One of the key areas this committee is really looking into is the reversal of medical tourism, we are not saying it should be stopped, but it should be reversed so that people can start coming to Nigeria for Medicare from different parts of the world to reduce the number of Nigerians traveling out for medical treatment.

“Let it be that Nigerians go to seek medical intervention abroad by choice and we will be glad to have our hospitals functional and have our systems working.”
The lawmaker stressed the need to ensure that shortage of human resources for health is addressed by making enrollment into medical schools easy, attractive and competitive.

He said, “We are going to legislate, engage to see things that will make the practice of medicine in Nigeria attractive, competitive and also good so that others from different countries will come to practice medicine in Nigeria.”

Magaji, who was displeased with the financial state of the hospital with regards to the Internal Generated Revenue it recorded in 2022 said that the hospital should be able to run on its own.

“The running cost of this hospital is in billions, reasonably why should one put 10 to 13 billion Naira and at the end what you are generating is not up to two billion Naira.

“I know that the hospitals are setup to provide services but it is not actually free.

“I am happy that the Chief Medical Director (CMD) has also looked at the areas of leakages and also began to block those areas.”

He urged the hospital to get fully digitalised and get their system automated as it was the way to go to deliver good service.

Magaji also said that to address the issue of patient’s inability to pay for services rendered, all Nigerians should have health insurance.

Also speaking, Deputy Chairman of the committee, Hon Adedayo Adesola, said that legislation could help with ensuring that the hospital’s cancer care and trauma units were funded.

“I am also of the opinion that people should not pay import duty for drugs like cancer, either for old or young people. Even people who have kidney transplants, drug rejection, and anti-drug rejection medication should also be tax free.”

There are some people that are not able to pay and I’m of the opinion that it is the duty of all of us to support the poor and the vulnerable, particularly when it relates to health”, he added.

On his part, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Prof. Raji Mahmud, observed that the facility is not generating enough revenue as expected because at the trauma centre, patients are treated without any initial deposits for the first 24 to 48 hours and the amount spent on one individual runs into millions.

He said, “When they are asked to go to the ward and asked to pay what they owe they either say they don’t have or some even die so we lose money every day. Also, cancer care gulps millions of Naira but we have never sent anyone away so you realise that whatever we generate from IGR we spend on some other drain pipes like the trauma center and cancer care, so it is really hurting us.”

Mahmud noted that the hospital is working to increase its IGR and had in the last few months blocked some leakages.

He added that about 98 per cent of the medical records had been recovered electronically.