Group seeks improved health performance index

A non-governmental organisation, the G50 Initiative for Health (G50-IFH), has called on the federal government to improve its health performance index by significantly increasing budgetary allocation to the health sector.

The president of G50-IFH, Benard Solomon, made the call on Sunday in Ibadan at the end of the 2024 Summit and Annual General Meeting of the association.

He decried Nigeria’s poor ranking on the Human Development Index, put at 0.5 percent and standing at 142 position among 195 countries.

Solomon also highlighted reports by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which positioned the country at number 104 out of 141 countries in the health performance index.

He explained that Nigeria scored 34.6 percent in the Laboratory Capacity Index (LCI), ranking 123 among 172 countries, adding that the country recorded 23.1 percent to rank 134 among 195 countries with diagnostic capacity.

“We call on the government to significantly increase budgetary spending on health, especially laboratory infrastructure, and scale up incentives and remuneration for the health workforce.

“It should reduce the number of out-of-school children, invest in cervical cancer screening to complement the HPV vaccine implementation for women, and invest in aggressive technology-enabled food production,” he said.

Solomon, while commiserating with President Bola Tinubu, the Federal Government and the military on the loss of the Chief Of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, recommended an instituted system to promote health and longevity

“The government should proactively activate annual medical laboratory testing and health checkups for senior citizens to combat the high degree of hidden stressors and to promote better health outcomes and longevity,” Solomon said.

Solomon said the association would enrol 12 indigent, less privileged persons in Ibadan in the national health insurance scheme.

“This is to promote health equity and reach out to the critical mass who can’t afford the cost,” he said.

Solomon also called for a review of the current leadership and governance structure in public health institutions, where more than 85 percent of average citizens seek health services.

“The current structure has failed as it is bedevilled by mismanagement, corruption, discrimination, nepotism, and crass low-quality thinking,” he said.

In his keynote address,Prof. Kola Oyedeji underscored the need to embrace digital technology in the medical diagnostic field.

He called for intervention funds for the diagnostics profession in terms of practice with a special bank owned by the government just for the health sector—the likes of the Bank of Industry that caters to the needs of industries.

“There must be deliberate support in assisting the diagnostics profession, which may come as grants or loans at one digit,” Oyedeji said.

He called on the government and regulatory agencies to prioritise training and retraining and provide infrastructure and facilities for the medical diagnostic field.

The Chairman, G50 Board of Trustees, Dr. Toyosi Raheem, charged members of the association with standardisation and quality assurance so that data from Nigeria would be relevant in the digital era.