Experts in rehabilitation services have called on the federal government to establish comprehensive rehabilitation centres in all geo-political zones of the country.
They made the call yesterday in a communique issued after a meeting on the implementation of Rehabilitation 2030 in Nigeria organised by the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Board. The communique was signed by the registrar of the board, Prof. Rufai Yusuf Ahmad.
They said there are no rehabilitation centres that could serve as transition points for people that have been managed for acute diseases and injuries before moving back to the community.
While calling on the government at federal and state levels to upgrade available facilities, they said the federal and state ministries of health should establish specialised rehabilitation units in tertiary hospitals.
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The stakeholders said there was a lack of a national policy on rehabilitation. They said, “ There should be a National Policy on Rehabilitation to be facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. There is the need for a review of National Health Financial policies with a view to developing strategies to fund rehabilitation to reduce out-of-pocket spending and increased access to Universal Health Coverage (UHC).”
They said funding for rehabilitation is scarce, adding that the government should explore alternative funding such as a public-private partnership.
They said the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) package for rehabilitation is not adequate, adding, “There is need for a review of NHIA packages to enhance rehabilitation through allocation of adequate number of sessions and insurance coverage of assistive devices.”
The stakeholders lamented that currently, rehabilitation is completely missing as an essential healthcare service in the implementation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) at the primary healthcare level.
They said, “This has hindered accessibility to rehabilitation services at the primary and community level of care. However, in the BHCPF manual, rehabilitation was stated as part of the healthcare services covered by the funds. The Federal Ministry of Health is the superintending arm of the government of the federation on health. Presently, there is no direct presence of rehabilitation services and personnel in the ministry.”
The stakeholders called on the federal and state governments, national and state assemblies, relevant ministries and government agencies, non-governmental organisations and other relevant stakeholders to intensify efforts towards the implementation of the resolutions of the stakeholders’ meeting in line with the guidelines of the Rehabilitation 2030 agenda.
“There should be an inter-sectoral approach to the implementation of the Rehabilitation 2030 agenda in Nigeria,” they said.
The Rehabilitation 2030 agenda is a major policy development by the United Nations, through the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to support countries towards strengthening their healthcare rehabilitation services and delivery towards the realisation of Objective 2 of WHO Global Disability Action Plan (WPA) 2014-2021.
