Experts have called for strategic health purchasing by all stakeholders to ensure improved health outcomes and the attainment of universal health coverage in the country.
They made the call yesterday in Abuja during a policy dialogue on strategic purchasing of healthcare services in honour of Results for Development Institute (R4D) Global Managing Director, Dr Cheryl Cashin’s visit to Nigeria.
Dr Cashin, the R4D Global Managing Director, said strategic purchasing makes deliberate decisions about how to allocate pooled funds – which services, from which providers, and how to pay – based on priorities, objectives, and information.
She said some conditions for creating strategic health purchasing include leveraging the budget, resisting fragmentation and learning together with your neighbours.
She said there is a need for the country to follow through on commitments and to continue to prioritise universal health coverage in the budget and budgetary allocations.
“I also think of looking very carefully at the primary healthcare level and making sure that funds reach the frontline and really meet the needs of people who are in communities,” she said.
Dr Hope Uweja, Nigeria country director, R4D, said strategic purchasing helps countries to get more value, and more health outcomes for the money.
He said, “We need to get more resources for health because currently, compared to many other countries, Nigeria still needs to do better. We need to utilise this money better to get more value for the money and that will also mean more health outcomes.
“So there is a need to improve the way the government spends money for health in order to ensure that a larger percentage of the Nigerian population get the health they truly deserve.”
The Director General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Prof Mohammed Nasir Sambo, said in addition to the dialogues, there is a need for the institutionalisation of health sector reforms, coordination of all stakeholder efforts, adequate and sustainable financing, political commitment at all levels of government and strategically harnessing the potential of the private sector – taking into consideration our local context and peculiarities.
Dr Francis Ukwuije, a health economist with the World Health Organisation (WHO), said on Nigeria’s journey towards universal health coverage, more attention is required in optimising health financing at the federal and state governments.
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