Lack of access to emergency healthcare kills 1.2m Nigerians annually-FG

Over 1.2 million Nigerians die every year from lack of access to emergency healthcare services, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire has said.

He said on Monday in Abuja while launching the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent and Elderly Health Plus Nutrition Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Coordination Platform.

• Nigeria’s healthcare low on citizens, global rating
• Campaign up to strength citizen “right, access” to healthcare

He said: “Emergency healthcare-related fatalities take more than 1.2 million lives every year in this country. This includes maternal and neonatal deaths and deaths from road accidents and even domestic accidents like falls, and internal medicine like pneumonia.

“Many of them cannot access care because the  hospitals are far away and when they get to the hospitals ,the cost of services are unaffordable for them.”

He said the National Emergency Medical Treatment Committee would help provide emergency medical transport for health emergencies, including pregnant women, to facilitate access to emergency obstetric care at the time of need.

“The provision of emergency transport alone has been demonstrated to reduce maternal mortality by as much as 50%”, he said. He said at least $252m would be required for full implementation of the blueprint across federal, state, local government and community levels.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Paullen Tallen, said maternal mortality was still high in the country and that only 38 percent of pregnant women were attended to by skilled professionals.

The president of the Nigeria Medical Association, Innocent Ujah, said there was need to factor research in the process to drive Universal Health Coverage.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, represented by the Emir of Keffi, Alhaji Shehu Usman, called for a robust mechanism that would involve traditional and spiritual leaders in the monitoring aspect of the programme.