9 November 2009
The Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, last Thursday called for the formation of a national partnership on health to achieve measurable health results.
The minister made the call in his address at the Presidential Summit on Health in Abuja. He also stressed the need for the adoption of a customised approach in improving on the poor health indices of the communities.
Osotimehin said it was imperative for every Nigerian to be involved in efforts to improve the poor health conditions in the country and stop shifting blame. He however, urged all the state health commissioners and their permanent secretaries to adopt a policy which best suited the environment in which they operated.
"We need to adopt a customised approach in improving our poor health indices by studying our locality and adopting the approach which best suits the areas' needs.
"That approach which worked in the west might not be suitable for the north," he said. Osotimehin reiterated that the creation of a national partnership between all the tiers of government on health was vital to any intervention directed at improving the country's health status.
The minister said the state governments would jointly develop a strategic plan that would form basis of a long-term development plan for the improvement of the health status of the citizens.
"The National Strategic Health Development Plan, which your states have been working together to jointly develop, will form the basis of the signing of a national compact with our development partners.
"This will enable us to take a long-term view on the improvement of the health status of our citizens and also expand the focus of the National Health Insurance Scheme to target communities and the informal sector," he said.
Osotimehin said the Federal Government had adopted a multi-faceted approach to improving the health situation in Nigeria.
He said some of the interventions included the Midwifery Services Scheme, which, he said, was a short-term emergency measure taken to urgently address the unacceptable high maternal mortality rate.
"The re-invigoration of the Polio Eradication Initiative, with the collaborative leadership of traditional and religious leaders, was also another form of intervention," he added.
Osotimehin promised that the Federal Government would continue to upgrade its tertiary hospitals, using private-public partnership funding mechanisms as a way of strengthening the referral systems.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that theme of the summit is "Accepting collective responsibility for improving our health in Nigeria".
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