The move by the Nigerian National Assembly to pass five bills aimed at establishment of new institutions in the Health Sector was out rightly rejected by the major stakeholders in the sector.

At a public hearing on five Bills and twelve Motions organized by the House Committee on Healthcare Services, the Ministry of Health said the establishment of the proposed institutions will amount to duplication of functions with existing ones and add to the cost of governance in the country.

The Nigerian Health Minister, Osagie Ehanire, represented by the Director Department of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Zainab Shariff said the bill for an Act to establish the Public Health Practitioners Council of Nigeria is a duplication of efforts and in conflict with the respective acts establishing the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), National Primary Healthcare Development Agency as well as Africa Institute of Public Health Practitioners.

“These are regulatory bodies under the Ministry that are already performing the stated functions in this proposed bill. The Federal Government is already working to harmonize the agencies which have similar functions.” The Minister added.

While rejecting the bill for an Act to make Healthcare Services free for all children in Nigeria, the Minister said “With the current realities, economic challenges and dwindling funds, it will be difficult to have free healthcare service for children.

There should be more public enlightenment to get every child enrolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Community Based Health Insurance Scheme, State Health Insurance Scheme which provide healthcare service at subsidized rates.”

Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, while declaring the hearing open, said due to the dire realities of the country’s public finances, stakeholders should consider the possibility of achieving the bills’ objectives without imposing additional obligations on Nigeria’s public finance.

Mr. Gbajabiamila who was represented by Deputy Chief Whip, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, said the bills and motions reflect the enormous importance that the 9th House of Representatives placed on public health, access to quality healthcare and conditions of service of those who work in healthcare services across our country.

The Chairman of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Lagos State chapter, Gbolagade Iyiola, has faulted the manner drugs are stored in Nigeria, noting that it compromises their standards.

This was disclosed in an interview with newsmen, He noted that most of the medical drugs in the market are not being handled by experts, hence, it affects their efficacy.

Iyiola explained that while reacting to a report by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency that over 70 per cent of medical drugs being dispensed in Nigeria are substandard.

NPHCDA had disclosed this on its website that over 70 per cent of medical drugs being dispensed in Nigeria are substandard and that majority of Nigerians do not have access to health services.

The PSN Boss said he cannot fault the NPHCDA’s report because the storage system of medical drugs has not been of the required global standard.

To fight against substandard drugs, the chairman urged the government to close all the existing open drug markets in the country.

“The way forward is for the government to close all the existing open drug markets. If you go to Idumota on Lagos Island, where drugs are sold, you will not see it as an ideal place where pharmaceutical products should be stocked and sold” He stressed.

Iyiola said, “The solution to this problem is to work on the storage system. If that is done, riding the country of counterfeiters will be the only problem that we will be confronted with. Even in the US, with their advancements and development, counterfeiters are still there.”

Ahead of this year’s World Tuberculosis Day, marked on March 24, the Stop TB Partnership has called for an urgent and substantial increase of funding to fight TB in order to meet the goal of ending the disease by 2030.

The organization’s latest projections show that an average of US$19.6 billion per year will be needed over the next eight years for TB prevention and care, up from the pre-Covid-19 estimate of US$13 billion per year.

An additional US$4 billion per year will be required for research and development (R&D) of the new diagnostics, medicines and vaccines needed to end TB. This represents about four times what is currently available for the TB response (in 2020, US$5.3 billion was available for care and prevention and US$0.9 billion for R&D).

The year 2022 is critical for the global fight to end TB as the world faces a fast-running countdown to reaching the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) TB targets, which the international community agreed to meet by the end of December. All projections show that the world is not on course to meet the UNHLM treatment targets set for 2022.

Additional funding will enable TB programs around the world to treat 50 million people with TB, including 3.7 million children and 2.2 million people with drug-resistant TB. It will also enable faster R&D, including new and effective vaccines, which are essential if TB will end by 2030.

Reaching the joint goal of ending TB is feasible if countries step up their funding commitments. Countries of the G20, for example, which represent 50% of the global TB burden, had a collective GDP of US$66 trillion in 2020, which is projected at US$99 trillion in 2026. The Stop TB Partnership estimates that mobilizing only 0.01% of this collective GDP would make an additional US$6 billion available per year for the fight against TB now and US$10 billion per year by 2026.

Director of the Division of Country Health Programmes, WHO, Dr. Nino Berdzuli said “we urgently need to provide the support needed to ensure continuity of treatment for people affected by TB, as well as to equip neighboring countries with the tools they need for timely diagnosis and treatment of refugees,”

The Stop TB Partnership is continuously monitoring and assessing the situation in Ukraine and is coordinating efforts with partners to provide seamless supplies of additional TB drugs to Ukraine if this need arises. They are also assuring that diagnostics and medicines are reaching the neighboring countries for uninterrupted TB care of people in need. The organization is also repurposing existing grants to support immediate emergency and lifesaving medical needs.

The Osun Health Insurance Scheme (OHIS) which took off in November 2018 has been rated second best in Nigeria.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Chairman of the Governing Board, Osun Health Insurance Agency (OSHIA), Adeoye Adelakun, while speaking with journalists in Osogbo.

Adelakun said it took dedication and focus on the part of the governing board as well as support from the state government to achieve the feat.

According to him, a total of 206,650 beneficiaries are currently on the scheme with 89,148 of the number being public servants, 39,530 of them are the principals while 49,618 are the dependant.

He said the figure did not include 30,420 vulnerable beneficiaries who received treatments free of charge under the scheme.

Adelakun said despite its short lifespan, OHIS had taken giant strides by excelling in all developmental parameters used to rate Health Insurance Schemes in the country.

The chairman who noted that 102 public and private service providers including 332 Primary Health Care Centres had been accredited by the agency, said the standard of participating hospitals had improved through quality control inspection.

He added that the scheme caters to four categories of people in both the formal and informal sectors as well as students in tertiary institutions and inmates at government orphanages and correctional centers.

Adelakun further explained that an additional 30,420 vulnerable persons drawn from Ministry of Youths and Sports and Osun Waste Management Agency would soon come on board the scheme.

Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of OSHIA, Dr Adeniyi Oginni, said the Agency had regularly paid capitation and fees for services received at the facilities, noting that the fees usually got paid first week of every month.

He also said that the Agency had engaged in the procurement and distribution of ICT support and Health Information Management System to 16 OSHIA accredited government hospitals.

Oginni revealed further that the Agency had a strict monitoring mechanism, put in place to ensure that participating facilities complied with international best practices while giving their best to the enrollees.

The bill that established Osun Health Insurance Agency (OSHIA) was signed into law on November 20, 2018.