Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State has launched an investment case document in the state in order to reduce health disparities in the state’s health sector.
Fashola, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, at the event over the weekend, explained that the document provided evidence in support of the existence of health disparities in the state and ways to reduce them.
He said that health disparities refer to differences between groups of people, which included differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes, survival rate and access to health care across racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and socioeconomic groups.
He said: “Though the existence of health disparities is worldwide, its manifestation is greater in developing countries such as ours. Attention is now being beamed on eliminating this vice even with consideration being given it as a human right issue and for us as a government that prides itself in social justice and fundamental human rights, we cannot close our eyes to such imbalance.”
The governor stated that he couldn’t agree less with a recommendation contained in the document which though advocates for a greatly increased investment in the health sector, but nonetheless stresses the need for complementary additional investment in areas with an important impact on poverty alleviation with its effects on health.
“These areas include education, water and sanitation, and agricultural improvement. Research has shown that investments in these various sectors work best when made in combination and the Lagos State government remains committed to giving priority to these identified sectors,” he said.
Fashola opined that health is the central goal and an important outcome of development stressed that the importance of investing in health to promote economic development and poverty reduction is less appreciated and greatly underestimated.
He saidd that evidence is in support of the fact that extending the coverage of crucial health services including a relatively small number of specific interventions to the poor could save millions of lives each year, reduce poverty, spur economic development and promote global security.
Fashola said: “It calls for timely, even urgent and bold action such as being witnessed today. As a government, we need to scale up the resources currently spent in the health sector and this effort is to be complemented by donors, partners and the private sector. We also need to tackle the non-financial obstacles that have limited our capacity to deliver health services, especially to those living on the peripheries among us.”
The governor noted that as the state increase the domestic resources for the health sector and use those resources efficiently, the levels of funding necessary to improve universal coverage of essential interventions are far beyond the state’s financial means even as these interventions have been proven to be cost effective and of high impact hence, the need for complementary funding and investment by development partners in the health sector.
He however restated the state government resolute committed to the implementation of its child survival strategies of which immunization, maternal mortality reduction, family planning and adequate child spacing and prevention and management of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis among others are given special attention.
He said: “In the coming years, aside funding of these essential services, additional huge investments would be critically needed in cases such as many non-communicable disease which includes cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and stroke; cancers especially breast, cervical and prostate cancers; mental health; violence and accidents and rapid rise of tobacco and diet or nutritional diseases that are increasingly becoming prevalent in Lagos State. As such, complementary funding would therefore be needed from our donors, development partners and private sector to close this financing gap.
Earlier, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, noted that the development of the investment case document followed due process with wide consultations and meetings involving various stakeholders including community leaders with support and technical assistance from consultants procured for the process.
He said: “Between March and April, 2011, data gathering and population of the Marginal Budgeting for Bottleneck (MBB) tool commenced. A consultant was recruited by UNICEF to support the Ministry on the process for five months and UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal conducted a tailored MBB bottleneck analysis training in May 2011 for two members of the state investment case team. Data entry, quality checks, group discussion and consensus building meetings on data gap amongst others were held and shared with three local government areas as part of community involvement and participation. This finding were revealing and informed some of the recommendations contained in the document.”
Idris noted that the purpose of the launch of the investment case document is to solicit stakeholders’ proactive and decisive manner in the implementation of the recommendations contained in the document.
“It is my hope that deserving attention would be accorded the document by all stakeholders to the end that commitments made would translate to reducing health disparities in Lagos State, help accelerate the attainment of the millennium development goals and advance the cause of better and more efficient delivery of health service to the good people of Lagos State,” he said.