A renowned health expert, Dr Ola Brown, has called for reforms in the health sector to address some of the challenges bedeviling the sector.
The founder of Flying Doctors made the call during a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) office in Abuja yesterday.
According to her, the sector has not received needed attentions from the Federal Government compared to other sectors which have witnessed a lot of watersheds in the previous administrations.
“Throughout the time I have been in the business almost ten years now ,obviously I have had the understanding of banking and business in general.I realized that when it came to banking, there was huge emphasis placed on their monetary policies, regulation and capitalization.
“There is a huge focus on the banking industry.Banking reforms under Charles Soludo has made the banking sector very strong today.The manufacturing industry also witnessed a revolution through policies and reforms.
“Unfortunately,we have not seen such sort of energy and focus in healthcare.This is the reason why I write the book. I’m currently engaging different stakeholders and experts in the healthcare sector to find out their views on healthcare policy and reforms to get the desired attentions”, she said.
Giving overview of her new online book titled,” Fixing Healthcare in Nigeria”, Dr Ola said the book is a guide to some of the key policy decisions that will provide better healthcare to all Nigerians.
The book according to her carefully coined out five pillars of healthcare reform which include; Primary healthcare expansion,tertiary healthcare centralization,focus on maternal and child health, task shifting and sustainable healthcare financing.
In his remarks, NMA President, Dr. Francis Adedayo lauded Ola’s immense contributions to health care in Nigeria and pledged to drive the clarion call for reforms in the sector.
Adedayo said the association has been at the forefront of making key policies for better healthcare in the country, assuring her of his support.
“This is a welcome development and I think its important for us to work together to see that we have strong healthcare in the country and have a robust plan for the sector.
“NMA will certainly partner with you because this is great initiative.
“NMA in recent has mapped out its strategic plans and its thematic areas is in line with the book.Its important not to look at the government as the only overseer of the healthcare sector but help the government to build a very strong healthcare sector”, he said.
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