The Senate is to carry out further legislative work (amendment) on the National Health Bill to make all embracing on all health matters.
This is because some aspects of health matters, especially in the area of renal diseases such as kidney, liver and heart, were not covered in the initial bill, yet to be accented to by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
The President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, said this when he played host to the executive committee members of the Nigerian Association of Nephrologists.
Mark said that a public hearing on the new NHIS would be held on next Monday in the National Assembly.
Mark told his guests that the Senate is very mindful of all health issues and “anything we can do by way of legislation to improve health care delivery in Nigeria would not be compromised.”
He harped on the need for all health providers to work in harmony in order to provide effective and quality health care services to the citizenry.
Earlier, the President of NAN, Prof. Evelyn Unuigbe, raised the alarm on the increasing rate of chronic kidney diseases in the country, especially among the youth between 25 and 40 years.
According to Unuigbe: “Although, there are no accurate data and no national renal registry on Nigeria, data from small scale community studies have found that the prevalence of CKD in adults ranges from 19 per cent to 30 per cent.”
She added that hospital data shows that advanced CKD accounts for six per cent to 12 per cent of medical admissions.
Unuigbe advocated for the establishment of National Renal Institute, which will be a centre of excellence for renal care in Nigeria.
She also requested the National Assembly to amend the NHIS bill to accommodate problem of renal diseases.
The NAN president charged Nigerians to adopt some preventive measures such as avoiding excessive weight gain, reduce salt consumption, exercise regularly, avoid the use of bleaching creams and soaps and have regular medical checks at least once a year.
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