The UHC
means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they
need without suffering financial hardship.
In a
statement on Thursday, WHO Nigeria Country Representative Walter Kazadi Mulombo
said: “To improve this situation, we need to act on the social and economic
determinants of health, by working across sectors to improve living and working
conditions, and access to education, particularly for the most marginalized
groups.
“Communities
need to be engaged as partners, through their networks and associations, to
shape and drive health and development interventions.”
The UHC
includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health
promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care across
the life course, according to the WHO.
The
coronavirus pandemic disrupted a lot of health services across the world,
including Nigeria where a lot of people had their medical routines distorted.
The
statement said a WHO report indicates that over 73% of the population make
out-of-pocket payments for health services and only 6.8 million out of a
population of over 200 million have access to healthcare services which is not
up to 10% of the entire population.
The
discussions to review the National Health Insurance Act to make it mandatory
for enrollment of all persons is a critical input in addressing this gap, WHO
said.
“WHO
Nigeria is supporting the government to strengthen capacities for the use of
disaggregated data, based on socio-economic stratification of the population,”
the WHO said, adding that it “is providing technical support for the policies
and strategies that would ensure that a lot more people have financial access
to quality health services.”
.jpeg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment