By Samuel Onyekwere
Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has assured that his government is working seriously in conjuction with relevant bodies to improve the health sector in Lagos State considering the population of the state. He gave this assurance at the 2018 AGM/Annual Scientific Conference of the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN). The two-day conference held at the Jevinik Event Center, Ikeja, Lagos, had as its theme ‘General Medical Practice: A Veritable Tool for Primary Health Care Service Delivery’.
The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said the theme of the conference is apt at a time the government is prioritizing primary health care delivery because of the population size of the state. He said the state has invested so much in the health sector, especially the primary health care, with the upgrading of these centers through the provision of state-of-the-art facilities and medical personnel.
His words: “This theme touches on one of the areas we have focused on in the past years, based on our conviction that primary healthcare is the foundation upon which an inclusive healthcare system is built.
“I can assure you that this administration will support any initiative, policies and programmes that will improve our health sector. The state of the healthcare service has been evolving over the years; the truth, however, is that there is a wide gap between where we are presently and where we desire to be. There is, therefore, the need to work out a system of healthcare service delivery that is efficient, qualitative and accessible to everyone.”
The host of the event and Lagos State Chairman of AGPMPN, Dr Tunji Akintade said the theme of the conference was carefully chosen because of failing result of various interventions by government and partners toward improving the health indices, particularly as the world is moving away from out of pocket payment to health financing. He said the association has greater roles to play and government at all levels must be made to realize this and see things from the direction of the doctors, and engage the association in a mutual way.
Asked about doctors’ continuous demand for a police report before treating a gunshot victim, he said the association has been drumming it into the ears of their members, the importance of their medical oaths.
Dr Akintade noted that the challenge lies on the government, who has not enlightened the people on the need to take gunshot victims to the right place where they can get treatment.
“What can a dentist do when you rush an accident or gunshot victim or a person with knife stuck to his chest to his hospital? He can only give first aid and then direct the patient to a cardiothoracic surgeon. In most cases, doctors have been erroneously victimized by families of gunshot victims for being the cause of the death of their relative and this is because they have not been enlightened,” he revealed.
Delivering a paper on the theme of the conference, Prof. Akin Osibogun, pointed out that one of the greatest obstacles to achieving effective primary health care system is government’s inability to deploy funds to the sector. The immediate past Chief Medical Director, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), revealed that the health sector most times get 3% or at most 5%, in the budget and when allocated, they are not properly utilized as 80 -90% goes to over head cost while the remaining goes to operation. He added that the poor are stuck in vicious circle as they only visit the hospitals in extreme cases when their ailments may have gone out of hand.
Other speakers at the conference include: Dr Mrs. Elizabeth Disu,Consultant Pediatrician who spoke on ‘Standard Protocol of Childhood Illness Management: Tool to Improving Health Indices In Children, while Dr Phillip Abiola, during the third plenary session, spoke on ‘Current Trend in Diabetes’.
The day-two of the conference looked at “Unified Medical Tariff, An Issue In The Code of Conduct of Medical Ethics which was delivered by Dr Tajudeen Sanusi , Registrar Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Abuja. Dr. (Mrs.) Mariam Jagun took the paper on ‘Partnership of Private Health Sector With Developmental Partners: Expected Outcome while Professor Chris Bode’s paper dealt on ‘Referral System: A connecting Instrument to All Level of Care: Monologue and Dialogue’.
The conference witnessed the investiture of Dr. Tosin Ajayi of First Foundation as the Patron of GPMPN. Dr Ajayi, in his acceptance speech, promised to re-awaken the health care sector in the country, as Nigeria can only developed in all facets with adequate health care provision.
There were goodwill messages from the National President of AGPMPN, Amb. Dr. Ugwu Iyke Odo, Dr. Ore Falomo, who is the grand patron of the Association, and Dr. Oluyomi Abayomi Finnih, who was the chairman of the occasion.
The conference was spiced up with products exhibitions by different medical and pharmaceutical organizations with processions by doctors from the 37 zones that make up the Lagos State Chapter of the association.