BY POLYCARP ONWUBIKO
One of the basic needs of man is good health since it provides the leeway for sustainable quest for meaningful source of livelihood. It stands to reason that all levels of government have bounden duty to provide adequate healthcare delivery system at affordable cost to the people.
It is therefore exhilarating to observe that Anambra state has registered quantum leap in healthcare delivery. The way the state Ministry of Health personnel tackled the dreaded global COVID-19 pandemic elevated the state to the limelight in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that Governor Willie Obiano, at inception of his first term in office, demonstrated the great importance he attached to quality healthcare delivery, given the fact that sustainable healthcare template drives productive human activities. He noted though that healthcare is not cheap and that for healthcare to improve in any nation, it has to be funded.
Thus, Anambra state government has been consistent in channeling funds for tertiary healthcare, which is the bedrock of quality healthcare. Governor Obiano has invested huge resources at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University to make sure that Anambra state has its own trained medical doctors and paramedics with a view to making the state a medical tourism destination at affordable cost.
With the seriousness it attaches to tertiary health education, Anambra state is likely to be one of the beneficiaries of the Federal Ministry of Health projects, which is seriously moving to have paramedics trained and have them as recognized cadre in the medical field. In other words, Anambra state is gearing up to have a paramedical school that will help address the healthcare deficit and also address unemployment.
On the other hand, scholarship is very vital. Government should therefore consider scholarship programs for indigent but very brilliant students who are finding it difficult to buy the usual very expensive text books on medicine. If there were more scholarships, there would be more people for training and retaining.
Again, it is worth commending how Anambra state faired on the containment of the coronavirus. With the proactive measures in place, as if the state had a premonition of the dreaded pandemic, the state government demonstrated impressive readiness right from the word go.
The government started the COVID-19 engagement in January, 2020 when it was fighting on two fronts – hitting on Lassa Fever and subsequently hitting on COVID-19. With respect to COVID-19, the government went through the four stages of public emergency: the stage of mitigation, preparedness, response and the stage of recovery.
It is cheering that healthcare during the Obiano administration has proactively been elevated to the limelight, strengthening of human resources and making healthcare providers become aware that patients are human beings and should be treated with dignity and respect.
General observation in the healthcare delivery system in Anambra state shows that efforts are upbeat in sustainable service delivery, availability of essential drugs, health informatics and health financing, which constitute effective building blocks for ideal healthcare in any progressive society.
Healthcare providers across the country are therefore urged to emulate the Anambra model in healthcare delivery. Conscious of dwindling resources being experienced by the state governments, there is need to accord health sector top priority because of the credible saying that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.
When the heath sector is accorded top priority in the annual budget, it will reduce the tendency for medical tourism to India, US, Britain, South Africa and Western Germany, which involves capital flight and a considerable drain in the nation’s scarce foreign reserve.
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