Bukola Adebayo
The National Chairman, Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria, Mr. Martins Oyewole, has called the attention of the Federal Government to allegations of fraud made against some principal officers of the National Health Insurance Scheme and other health agencies in the country.
Speaking during the 19th Annual National Scientific Conference of the AHAPN, themed ‘Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists and National Development’ and recently held in Lagos, he urged the government to ensure that the allegations were investigated to a conclusive end.
Oyewole noted that just as the mismanagement of funds at the insurance agency had put the health sector in a bad shape, the poor performance of the insurance scheme had also denied many Nigerians access to quality and affordable health care over the years.
He said, “Nigerians could not afford to pay for quality medicines even when the economy was doing well because the NHIS is not serving those it was meant to. A lot of fraud is been perpetrated under the system and by players in the sector.
“The law that established the organisation states that health care providers should be paid for services rendered but that has not been happening. It is those that are not rendering services that are taking the chunk of the money.”
The AHAPN boss called on the Federal Government to follow the laws guiding the operations of the scheme, while adopting a prescription system that would ensure that pharmacists are paid for services rendered.
Urging stakeholders in the sector to understudy the primary health care models of developed countries in order to improve the nation’s poor health indices, he said, “Our primary and secondary health care systems must be functional and drugs should be available in every health facility owned by government. The money that is meant for the provision of drugs in these hospitals should not be tampered with.
“We have realised that the drug distribution system in Nigeria is very poor and we want to partner with government agencies to correct this. But, when you dig deep, you will find out that some of them are more corrupt than the government itself. However, we must make the health sector work.”
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