As criteria to access the fund, state government must contribute N100 billion as counterpart fund, the establishment of state Primary Health Care Development Board and State Health Insurance Scheme.
Professor Isaac Adewole, Minister of Health in Nigeria, has revealed that 14 states are yet to sign in to the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.
Adewole said this when he appeared before the Senate to explain the deteriorating condition of teaching hospitals in the country.
The BHCPF is the one per cent of the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue and contributions from donor grants set aside to fund the basic health needs of Nigerians.
He said, “I commend the Senate for the approval of the 1% primary Healthcare lnclusive in the Budget. 22 of our states have registered for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. As of today, 14 states are yet to show interest in basic health care provision.”
According to the Adewole, the states yet to access the fund are Kebbi, Jigawa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Gombe, Rivers, Borno, Zamfara, Ondo, Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Ogun and Sokoto.
As criteria to access the fund, state government must contribute N100 billion as counterpart fund, the establishment of state Primary Health Care Development Board and State Health Insurance Scheme.
The Health Minister also said that the primary and secondary health system in the country is very bad while calling for urgent intervention by the state government to further develop basic health care in the country.
“We have 22 teaching hospitals in the country and 17 specialist hospitals under the direct body of the Federal Government. The teaching hospitals constitute the apex of health care in any country. For us in Nigeria, they represent the topmost and by design are expected to manage complex and complicated cases,” he said.
Adewole added, “For them to function effectively, they depend on functional primary and secondary health care centres. If these two levels of care are functional, about 90% of ailments will be taken care of. Only 10% of Nigerians who require care would need to go to tertiary institutions.”
“Over the last couple of years, we have had a challenge. We can describe the health care as a pyramid with Primary Health Care at the base, Secondary at middle and Tertiary at the top.”-
“We can compare it to a building; primary health as the foundation, the secondary as the wall and the tertiary as the roof. The problem we have is that the foundation is bad and the wall is weak and we are only concerned about the roof
The Health Minister stated that if the government invest in the Primary Health Care of the country, a lot of people would not have a cause to go to the Tertiary.