Dear President Buhari,
First and foremost, I write this letter to wish you well in your recovery
and to show you my warm support. I owe you that much as a citizen of
Nigeria.
Sir, since this recovery period offers you ample opportunity for solitude,
thoughtful reflections, and introspection, I would like, with this medium
to bring some issues in the nation’s health sector to your attention,
because each of these issues falls within the sphere of your executive
influence, which if you exert would bring full closure to all of them.
Mr President, I see a big window of opportunity for your government to
make a lot of difference in rebuilding the collapsed health care system of
this country, especially now with the introduction of Primary Health Care
Revitalisation Programme by your Health Minister, 70% of the disease
burden in Nigeria that falls under the purview of primary health care and
what is needed is sustained commitment to infrastructural development in
that stratum of the health sector.
Sir, if you give primary health care the attention it deserves, and you
put up the about 10,000 functional primary health care centres across the
country as the Health Minister , has promised on your behalf at different
fora, all our health care indices, principal among which are Maternal
Mortality Rate and Infant and Under five Mortality rates would drastically
improve and you will go down in history as the President that made that
happen. On the other hand you would have successfully improved the health
status and quality of life of millions of Nigerians.
I am equally hopeful that if the robust and cost efficient National Health
Agenda the Health ministers have been promoting which is to deliver basic
health care on a sustained basis to about 100 million Nigerians in the
next 2 years is given prompt presidential assent and direct political
support from your esteemed office, Nigerians would sing a new song before
2019. As a matter of fact, I simply conclude that you already have a tool
in your Health ministers , your need is political will to use that tool
especially in the actualization of Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria;
an agenda of the Health Ministry .
Of vital importance also is the rising prevalence of cancer in the
country. Seeking cancer treatment abroad is as a matter of fact one of the
pointed reasons for medical tourism which costs Nigeria about 1.5 to 2
Billion U.S Dollars annually. My father is 74, just less than a year older
than you. He had a prostate cancer screening lately and it was negative.
He came clean. Countless Nigerians are not that lucky. It always happens
that when cancer strikes, there is hardly anywhere to turn to for help.
Only the National Hospital Abuja and another private hospital have
functional linear accelerators for Radiotherapy (a treatment modality for
cancer) and those machines are suffering from extreme overuse. We are a
country of between 160-170 Million people. This is worrisome.
Your administration needs to keep faith with the people by seeing this
sordid reality for what it is and act in the best interest of the people.
Many Senators, both within the ruling party and the opposition in the
National Assembly are of the opinion that cancer diagnosis and treatment
centres of excellence should be established in each of the six
geopolitical zones in the country. Mr President, you should make this an
executive priority, and set up a Presidential task force in this regard.
You already have a lot of people around you who have proven expertise in
this area and are willing to do a good job.
Regarding Medical tourism, I strongly believe we can drastically reduce
this disturbing trend which is constantly removing heavy amount of forex
from our already contracting economy. We need home grown solutions to all
our medical challenges.
It is therefore highly imperative that your government drive public
private partnership to foster the building and operation of highly
sophisticated and efficient Medical infrastructures across the country.
The need for Private Investors Participation on a large scale has become
very obvious and necessary. This would largely curb the trend of medical
tourism in the country. We can definitely turn our pain to gain in this
regard.
Similarly, the chaotic and charged atmosphere in the health sector has
remained perennially; strikes are always coming at a diabolical
regularity; doctors and other allied health workers are always at dagger
drawn with themselves. This menace has weakened the health sector
significantly over the years. Issues of unpaid remuneration is also
nagging and causing unending industrial disputes
Mr President, I am fully aware of the serious macroeconomic condition we
are faced with in the country at the moment, however, I want to implore
you to show your revered leadership again in this matter. I strongly feel
you and your team should wade in and do your best in resolving these
crises.
The health ministry’s outing during the last Lassa Fever Outbreak is very
commendable and this level of emergency and disaster management should not
be allowed to slide down but there should be continuous improvement.
Sir, there are your pictures administering vaccines to children on
countless billboards nationwide. Our nation’s vaccination programmes are
becoming more effective but we must be persistent till all vaccine
preventable illnesses are eliminated from within our boundaries.
I also think Prof Isaac Adewole , your Health Minister who has
demonstrated efficiency and positive connect with various unions in the
medical sector should be made to utilize his own experience in positive
activism to work out an amicable solution to these recurring crises the
more. A reformed health sector would benefit everyone, and the agitations
for increased remuneration would be automatically taken care of if we
begin to operate by different sets of rules in the sector.
We must eliminate corruption from the health sector. I am gratified that
Professor Adewole was the first public servant in your employment who
demonstrated a rare courage by pointing out the menacing issue of budget
padding, a singular action that saved the entire country of humongous
amount of money that some corrupt cabals would have fleeced the country
of.
Mr President, if we fail to get a positive result with the combination of
Prof Isaac Folorunso Adewole, an outstanding health administrator and Dr
Osagie Ehanire, a renowned surgeon, then we might not get it right again.
In conclusion, the current policy direction of the Health Ministry is very
reassuring. Hence, I write this letter to lobby you to ensure that all the
issues raised are given the necessary attention they deserve and full
implementation of your health agenda.
I wish you perfect health Mr President.
God bless Nigeria.
Respectfully yours,
Dr Adesiyan Olufunmibi (General Practitioner)
Lagos.