TheCable

The federal government has inaugurated the health sector reform committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The committee was set up in September 2021, with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo named as chairperson.

Membership of the committee include government officials, development partners, the traditional institution, and civil society organisations.

Speaking at the virtual inauguration on Thursday, Osinbajo said the current reality is that the Nigerian health sector still carries some critical challenges, which has resulted in poor outcomes, when compared with more developed jurisdictions of the world.

According to a statement by Laolu Akande, his spokesperson, the vice-president said the government has the primary responsibility to address the issues “and to put in place the structures and arrangements necessary to boost the efficiency of the healthcare ecosystem, improve healthcare delivery, stem the brain-drain of our health personnel and reduce the pressure on our foreign reserves on account of medical tourism”.

“There have, of course, been a good number of attempts to reform the healthcare system in Nigeria and many of us who are members-designate of this committee are familiar with some of these reform efforts, but this particular journey of reforming the Nigerian health sector began with the commissioning of a diagnostic needs assessment (DNA) of the sector,” he said.

“Subsequently, the national council on privatisation at its meeting of April 12, 2019, approved the appointment of consultants to carry out the assignment, which involved a review of previous reform efforts in the sector, as well as field visits to the 55 tertiary health institutions across the country and some selected sub-regional health institutions.

“I am keen to ensure that the coordinating office for the reform effort which will be domiciled in the office of the vice-president will not just have the ministry of health, but also some of the important technical resource persons provided by our partners and of course solid representation also from the committee.

“The coordinating office will provide technical and administrative oversight of all activities of the reform, and I intend to have further consultation with the minister of health as we bring this to fruition.”