Don laments poor funding of health care

The vice-chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof.
Isaac Adewole, has identified weak governance,
inadequate funding, and political instability as
factors militating against qualitative health care
delivery in the country.
He said this at the 36th scientific conference of the
Association of Resident Doctors, Olabisi Onabanjo
University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu chapter.
He maintained that health care delivery had not
been given due attention.
Adewole, who spoke on ‘Health care sector reform:
The emerging concepts,’ noted that apart from the
enumerated factors, over-reliance on foreign
grants/funds in addressing health care challenges
had made the country to be at the beck and call of
some developed countries, to the detriment of
internal development.
The don was also worried about the increasing
burden of communicable and non-communicable
diseases in Nigeria and other parts of Africa,
stressing that this was due to the fact that most
people in the country and African sub-region had
adopted Western diet.
Adewole said there had been little or no profit from
the series of international conventions and
conferences that had been held internally on
health-related issues; noting that even when
recommendations were made, funding had been
the major challenge to the implementation of such
recommendations.
While assessing the health reform efforts in
Nigeria, he maintained that for any health reform to
be successful, it must be sustained, remain
purposeful and it must produce fundamental
changes in the health sector.
He said, “For a true health reform to be successful,
there must be proper study of health situation in
the country, and thorough analysis, as well as a
design of how to come up with the desired
changes.”
In their separate remarks, Chief Medical Director,
Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Dr.
Alfred Jayesimi; and the Commissioner for Health,
Ogun State, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, admitted that the
health sector in Nigeria was not where it should
be.
They noted that series of challenges such as
incessant strikes by health workers and doctors,
among other issues, had worsened the situation.
They solicited the support and collaboration of all
the stakeholders in the sector in order to place the
health sector in vantage position.