The Federal Government of Nigeria has said it is now considering upgrading basic health care facilities in all the 774 local governments of the federation so that the local level can access and benefit from free Medicare irrespective of their ages.
The Federal Government, through the Director-General of Bureau for Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Mr Dasuki Arabi has made it known that all is set for the creation of a Basic Health Care Provision Fund to enable Nigerians to access free Medicare at the local level irrespective of their ages.
In his words, Arabi noted that the fund which is a creation of the Federal Government is a special account where a percentage of the national budget is being paid into to support and upgrade basic healthcare facilities in all the 774 local governments of the federation.
He disclosed that if the facilities have been upgraded, drugs and every other important thing, every person that is ill can access the facility regardless of whether you are a retiree, old or young. You will access healthcare as long as you are in the local community where the facility is and it is free.
“The bureau did some research work before this time on waiting time to see a doctor and that is after we have considered and seen the problems that people faced before they access health care services.
“So, we worked with DFID and the Ministry of Health to go round the entire federation and see what are the problems, challenges, and issues. And we collectively agreed on a framework to change the approach and how patients are treated and to make it easy for them to have access to doctors, Medicare in all federal health institutions.
“We are glad that the recommendations are being implemented by the ministry, it has even gone beyond what we have done to improve on that.”
Arabi pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak exposed the healthcare sector in Nigeria, noting that the sector was almost zero, hence the reason for setting up the basic healthcare provision fund.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had set the record of paying the first amount of the contribution into the account.
He said, “And it is compulsory for government to pay that percentage into that special account. We equally noticed that the states are not initially being able to access the funds, some because of reasons of coordination at the national level and some because of other things that they are facing.
“Then, we came up with the idea to encourage the state governments to access the funds, we brought the stakeholders together to understand themselves, to address the issues and challenges they have been facing.
“So that they will access the fund and the citizens will benefit from it.’’