The federal Government has restated it’s  commitment to the revitalisation of primary health care services in the country, even as it admitted that the journey towards desirable health system and outcomes is still long.

The Minister of Health,Osagie Ehanire restated the commitment while Speaking at the 2022 Primary Health Care Summit, in Abuja, said every ward in the country needs a primary health care centre.

He noted that,”The primary health care level has been neglected, with consequent negative impact on human capital development”, but we also have opportunities to build back better, with the goodwill and funds that have flowed into the system since then.”

“It is in that light that we wish to rebuild our system by correcting the imbalance among the levels of care, beginning with this PHC summit”,the minister added.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, speaking at the event with the theme:“Re-imagining Primary Health Care in Nigeria”, said that Nigeria has a four point PHC agenda to implement.

“The four-point agenda,he said,”is about implementing strategies that work and also thinking about those strategies that will drive more service delivery and revilitalisation of our primary health care sectors in Nigeria.”

” Everybody here today has a part to play in changing the current state of our primary health cares. Now is the time for us to talk and deliver solutions that will radically transform the PHCs in Nigeria,” Shuaib added.

Lagos State Government has reiterated its determination to change the high burden of tuberculosis narrative in the state, by increasing awareness and ensuring effective service delivery.

The state also promised to ensure and improve access to TB diagnosis, treatment services and care among the citizens.

The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye, gave the assurance at a media briefing in Lagos to commemorate the 2022 World TB Day in Lagos. According to Ogboye, Nigeria ranked seventh among the 20 Tuberculosis high-burdened countries in the world, with Lagos State having the highest TB burden in Nigeria.

“Lagos government is determined now, more than ever, to change this narrative. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 63 million lives since the year 2000. With a population of over 23 million people and a projected 3.2 per cent annual growth rate, the incidence rate of TB in Lagos State is 219 per 100,000 populations.”

“Prevalence rate is 330 per 100,000 populations while the annual expected notification rate is about 50,000 TB cases. It has become pertinent to increase general awareness, ensure effective service delivery, including diagnosis, treatment, and care by improving access to TB diagnosis and treatment services. These are also meant to achieve Universal Health Coverage and ensure equitable access,’’ Ogboye said.

He said that as part of improvements to reduce TB burden, the Lagos State Ministry of Health, through the support of Global fund, established DOTS Centres.

The permanent secretary said it was estimated that daily, approximately 30, 000 people fall ill and over 4,100 lose their lives to the preventable and curable disease.

He further explained that, the theme for the 2022 World TB Day was very appropriate as it conveyed an urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments to end it.

Ogboye said that the theme also called on those involved in the fight against TB to unite under the theme, which decried the low levels of funding for TB response.

The Managing Partner of DGI Consult, Dr. Gafar Alawode, said it was not enough to mobilise more money for TB, but that there was also a need to ensure the effective utilisation of resources.

“Therefore, we need to raise the accountability bar for TB funding to ensure maximum value for the money. This is where civil societies need to do more toward ensuring more transparency in TB financing. As the paradigm of health financing is shifting from inefficient input-based financing to strategic purchasing, we need to ensure a paradigm shift in our budgeting instrument.” he said.

Towards revitalizing the Nigerian health sector, a Primary Health Care Summit is ongoing in Abuja.

The Summit is organised by the Nigerian government through the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency.

The event brought together government actors, health stakeholders, donor agencies and partners, religious and traditional leaders to discuss and find ways of making sure that the primary health care sector works.

Nigeria’s Vice President Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, said that a lot more needs to be done to reposition the PHC in Nigeria.

“There is no way that that government budget alone can find health care. There is absolutely no way” Osibanjo said.

He called on the private sector to assist Nigeria to achieve Universal Health Coverage by taking part in health service delivery.

The Nigerian minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said that Nigeria needs at least one functional primary health care center in all local government areas on the country.

He said that 70% of diseases can be managed at PHCs thereby reducing the burden on Secondary health facilities.

He said that the PHC has been neglected for too long with adverse effects on the citizens.

He also said that Indeed, the foundation of any strong health system and for Universal Health Coverage rests on a robust, resilient PHC system, where health experts reckon that up to 70% of the country’s disease burden can be treated and vital disease prevention and health promotion education can be given, including immunization, routine and mass drug administration for various chronic diseases.

The minister added that Nigeria has altogether invested overwhelmingly in Tertiary Healthcare, from Public, private and Corporate points of view, and in comparison, little on Primary Healthcare, where the real health need is and where nearly all the damning statistics in health indices are generated.

Nigeria minster of Finance Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed says quality Primary Health Care is indispensable to achieving a Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria.

The Chairman Chairman Nigeria Governors Forum Dr. Kayode Fayemi reiterated the commitment of the NGF to strengthening PHC in each of the 36 states of the federation.

US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard said that Nigeria was moving closer to the achievement of Universal Health Coverage as it pays more attention to the primary health care sector

Speaking on behalf of the private sector, Chairman, Aigboje Aig-imoukhuede Foundation, Mr. Aigboje Aig-imoukhuede, said that every local government area in Nigeria has people who can deliver Primary Health care center for them.

In his presentation, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib said that Nigeria has a four point PHC agenda to implement.

“The four-point agenda is about implementing strategies that work and also thinking about those strategies that will drive more service delivery and revilitalisation of our Primary health care sectors in Nigeria. Everybody here today has a part to play in changing the current state of our PHCs. Now is the time for us to talk and deliver solutions that will radically transform the PHCs in Nigeria.” Dr. Shuaib said.

The theme of the Primary Health Care Summit is “Re-imagining Primary Health Care in Nigeria

The Ondo State Government has urged individuals to assist government and its partners to fund the fight against tuberculosis in order to save lives.

The state manager for Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control, Dr. Oluwafemi Aina, made this call Thursday at the 2022 Tuberculosis Day Symposium in Akure to commemorate the World Tuberculosis Day.

It noted that reducing the disease burden requires sustained funding, but that lately, international funding and partnership had dwindled.

He explained that it had been reliably and scientifically proven that if TB patients not subjected to proper case management and treatment, they could infect an average of 10 to 15 persons annually.

Dr. Aina said Ondo State, a federating unit in the country, was not isolated from the menace and public health burden of tuberculosis.

He said, “In 2021, Ondo State with an estimated population of 4,671,700, is estimated to have a TB burden of 10,231 from the incident rate of 219 in 100,000 population.

“Remarkably and notably in the fight against TB, The state notified a total of 2,537 of TB patients in the year 2021, which represents the highest thus far in the history of the tuberculosis programme. This was a significant increase of 33.5 per cent in comparison to the year 2020.”

According to him, the success rate for patients subjected to treatment for the year 2021 was 86.5 per cent, a testament to the credibility and quality of service offered.

The Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Ministry of Health, Mrs. Folukemi Aladenola, said that the occasion was to create more awareness and educate people on the infectious disease.

Aladenola, who was represented by the director of Nursing Services in the ministry, Mrs. Alice Ogundele, said that tuberculosis, a deadly disease, could be treated, adding that its treatment was free in government health facilities across the state.

She appealed to individuals to channel their resources towards ending tuberculosis in the state as the fight against the disease was a collective responsibility.

Declaring the symposium open, Dr. Banji Ajaka, the state Commissioner for Health, said TB was the leading cause of death from single infected disease in the world.

Ajaka gave an assurance that the government would do everything possible in stemming the spread of tuberculosis in the state.

He revealed that TB diagnostic capabilities had been enhanced toward the end of 2021, with addition of three new GeneXPERT facilities to the initial eight that had been serving 18 local government areas.

Mrs. Ivy Sule, the country representative of the Diamen Foundation of Belgium, one of the state’s TB partners, said the foundation is focused on the diagnosis and management of tuberculosis and leprosy in Nigeria.

She said that the foundation’s collaboration with the government had yielded major achievements in the tuberculosis programme.

“The foundation’s intervention in private sector engagement and in the diagnosis of tuberculosis contributed 28 per cent to the total number of active tuberculosis cases detected in the state in 2020 and 45 per cent success in 2021,” Sule added.

Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo says there is a great need for synergy between government at all levels and the private sector, to further improve access to healthcare services, especially for the vulnerable population and general development of primary healthcare system.
Professor Osinbajo stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the National Primary Health Care Summit organised by the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), which held at the International Conference Centre.

He said; “There is no way that healthcare funding can be paid for by government budgets alone.”
Professor Osinbajo stated that there was an urgent need for collaboration between governments at all levels to address some of the drawbacks occasioned by the concurrent constitutional status of primary healthcare.

Highlighting ways to reform and re-imagine the health sector, the VP who is the chairman of the Health sector Reform Committee set up by the President, restated the importance of a compulsory health insurance scheme, especially one where “premiums for certain categories of vulnerable groups are paid by the government.”
“As the Minister of Finance has said, the target is 100% coverage for the poor and vulnerable in the short to medium term.

“Aside from funds, what the private sector should bring to the task are models of efficiency and cost-saving market-driven ideas,” the Vice President noted.
He called for more interventions from the private sector to support government efforts in this regard, saying repositioning Nigeria’s healthcare sector to address major health indices remained a critical component of the President Buhari Administration’s development agenda.
In January 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Health Care Reform Committee, which is chaired by the Vice President.
Recalling the mandate of the Committee, the VP stated that “the primary objective is to reengineer our healthcare delivery system such that it becomes, in the President’s words, people-centric, modern and virile; a healthcare system that addresses the depressing health indices frontally.

The VP listed other government’s responses towards improving healthcare such as the “Basic Healthcare Fund seeking to address the cost of healthcare for the poor, Nigeria’s Covid-19 response measures, including the health sector component of the Economic Sustainability Plan, the establishment of Healthcare Sector Intervention Fund Facility which has already disbursed almost N80 billion to finance the acquisition and installation of critical medical equipment and the expansion of production lines in some pharmaceutical companies.”
Professor Osinbajo commended the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire for his commitment towards advancing healthcare causes in the country.
He also acknowledged the efforts of the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunimbe Mamora, as well as the Executive Director/CEO of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, and his team.