In apocalyptic terms the PSN considers it necessary that the in-coming APC administration come up with specific action plans in the reflected areas even when it is not limited to these items:

 

1. Universal Health Coverage - incorporating fully Community Based Social Health Insurance Programme (CBSHIP)

 

A need for universal coverage is acceptable, but the condition precedent is to harness and consolidate the philosophy of a managed care concept that is statute entrenched. To achieve quality assurance in our version of social health insurance, it is important to encapsulate the below:

 

Canvass a consolidated healthcare funding which requires first line deduction of at least 5% for healthcare delivery. This helps in funding the subsidy gap.

Promote the culture of corporate social responsibility by enlisting support of the banking, oil and gas and telecoms sectors which are the frontliners in the Nigerian economy.

The NHIS must partner the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and its appendages to champion a credible drug supply scheme by facilitating the involvement of major manufacturers and importers in the NHIS.

 

We recommend that the NHIS Governing Council must re-establish linkages with the highest level of Government to nurture the required political will to ensure success for the Scheme.

We also call for massive advocacy to sell the new Scheme to the Health consuming public and to ensure a proper understanding of the workings of Health Insurance by the Nigerian public.

We note that one of the major functions of HMOs is the establishments of quality assurance system as earlier mentioned and regret the near absence of the important function. This explains why providers not qualified for particular functions were allowed to offer such services at the detriment of the enrollee.

 

Aware of the important role cost containment plays in ensuring survival of the Scheme, we are recommending a set of incentives and sanctions to encourage providers to comply strictly with the operational guidelines.

2. Well defined welfare package for health workers which redresses attendant stress junctions that have resulted in recurrent and perennial strike actions.

 

3. An acceptable Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative for some services in the health system to promote efficacy, boost competences and build capacity in the private sector. The PPP models must be worked out with the relevant professional associations and professional regulatory councils as they arise.

 

4. For the pharmaceutical sector, government at the centre must come up with reforms that will usher a petrochemical industry which is the precursor for genuine industrial revolution across board. The moment Nigeria comes up with benzene plants, then the inertia for primary manufacturing is established in contrast to the stuttering fortunes which we have continually witnessed in our country.

 

At a time when we place emphasis on diverse sources of IGR because a mono-based economy comes with too much limitations and complications, government must exploit the vast expertise available in the pharmaceutical sector by making Nigeria a destination of choice for drug manufacturing in the foreseeable future.

 

5. Investment in research and development through substantial financial rates for the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD). It is the shame of a nation that at time of national health emergences we depend entirely on other nations to provide vaccines and medicines for clinical disease states that are exclusive to the tropics. This must change in the envisaged new dispensation.

 

In the light of these suggestions, the PSN calls on the in-coming APC administration to organize consultative meetings which inculcates the stakeholders in health especially the professional associations and the trade unions. Such templates will foster unity and harmony as consensus positions can be effectively implemented by government.

 

OLUMIDE AKINTAYO,FPSN, FPCPHARM, FNAPHARM, FNIM

PRESIDENT, PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF NIGERIA