Experts harp on health purchasing for improved service delivery

Experts in health policy research have called for strategic health purchasing by all stakeholders to ensure quality healthcare delivery in the country.

They made the call on Monday during the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Centre (SPARC) policy dialogue organised by the Health Policy Research Group (HPRG) in Abuja.

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The theme of the dialogue was: “Achieving Strategic Health Purchasing in Nigeria: Where are We and What do We Need to Do?’

Prof Obinna Onwujekwe, Coordinator of Health Policy Research Group, University of Nigeria, Enugu campus, said doing so would improve the country’s poor health indices and reduce out-of-pocket expenditure on health.

He said currently health purchasing in Nigeria was passive and not linked to achieving anything most times.

“So at the end we see a lot of money spent, but citizens do not get the kind of benefits they are supposed to get. We need to be strategic to achieve set goals.

“The idea is to spend money more efficiently and effectively in health care so that no matter how small the money is, we will get the maximum benefits for the people.

“The country needs to expedite action on using strategic purchasing for healthcare. So all stakeholders in health financing, donors, government and implementers need to be more strategic when developing programmes and how they money will be spent,” the expert submitted.

Prof Onwujekwe who was the convener of the dialogue, further said there was need to increase the funding for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHPF) to 10 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, noting that the current one per cent would not lead to meaningful achievements in the health sector.

Dr Uchenna Ewelike, a health economist, in his presentation on governance and institutional capacities within the Formal Sector Social  Health Insurance Programme (FSSHIP) and tax funded health services (GTF), said there was need to entrench strategic health purchasing at both the demand side and supply side of health financing so that that the country could have value for money.

He said strategic health purchasing was not well entrenched with GTF and FSSHIP schemes due to several weak governance and capacity issues.

He further said legislative amendments on conflict of interest that affected strategic health purchasing should be pursued with vigour.

He called for the setting up of institutes and learning centres where people could acquire knowledge on strategic health purchasing, including leveraging the ones in universities and polytechnics.

Dr Okara Dogara of the BHCPF desk in the Federal Ministry of Health said there had been optimal cooperation at the sub-national level for the implementation of BHCPF.

Dr Eke Jonathan, General Manager, Formal Sector at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), said the agency deployed strategic purchasing in its operations, including its benefit packages for enrollees.