Health minister Isaac Adewole has said investment in public private partnerships in the health sector will continue in efforts to strengthen primary healthcare, reduce medical tourism and cut the heavy burden on tertiary hospitals having to deal with a flood of minor ailments.
Speaking at the first edition of Primary Health Care service public lecture series in Abuja, Adewole said tertiary health care consumes nearly 75 percent of health resources and caters for conditions and illnesses that should have been the responsibility of primary health care.
“What we have is a pyramid on its tip. If we truly need to deliver health to the people, we need a pyramid on its base,” he said.
The minister said there was need to refocus and place the health of the average Nigerian on the front burner, stressing that emphasis would be to put life into primary health care.
Executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Muhammad, said years of poor equity, governance and under performance had caused the primary health care system to perform poorly to the disappointment of many Nigerians.
He said the lecture series would help gather evidence, lessons and experience from health practitioners to adapt best practices and minimise inefficiency.
Former health minister, Prof Eyitayo Lambo, who delivered the first-ever lecture in the PHC service series, said Nigeria needed consistent will to reach a goal of perfect primary health care, which has been instituted in Nigeria for more than 20 years.
Tertiary hospitals overburdened by minor ailments – Minister
Health minister Isaac Adewole has said investment in public private partnerships in the health sector will continue in efforts to strengthen primary healthcare, reduce medical…