BY MAIRIGA Juliana, Minna
Pioneer Provost, School of Medical Sciences, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Prof. Kabiru Sabitu has attributed high rate of infant and maternal mortality rate in Nigeria to abysmal failure of Primary Health Care (PHC) delivery system.
Speaking at the 3rd Annual Lecture of, Newgate College of Health Technology, Minna, Kabiru expressed regrets that achieving successful health care financing has continued to elude Nigeria due to poor funding of the health sector by the government except mostly from donor agencies.
“Infant mortality ratio in Nigeria is 69 per 1000 live births while maternal mortality ratio is 840 per 100, 000 live births. It is also of serious concern that the ratio of doctors per 1, 000 population is, 4 to 0 ration”, Prof. Kabiru pointed out.
He said, government at all levels continued to allocate below 5% of their annual budget to education despite the Abuja declaration that stipulated that, 15% of annual budget be channeled to the health sector.
Professor Kabiru therefore called on the federal government to commence the implementation of the Primary Health Care Act which spelled out sources of funding for the health sector as passed by the National Assembly and assented to by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Act was explicit on how to fund the PHC system adding that the success of health care delivery in the country will be a mirage if patients continue to pay for health care services from their pockets.
The Executive Director of the College, Hassan Nuhu had earlier in a remark said the institution was ready to contribute to the development of the country with the training of the needed man power in the health sector.
Nuhu who awarded scholarship of the college to 30 indigent students of the institution explained that it was part of the management’s commitments towards assisting that category of students from host communities.
Leave a Reply