The Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has called on the Nigerian Medical Association to embark on intensive advocacy on the National Health Insurance Scheme to ensure full and comprehensive implementation.
Uduaghan, who made the call at the ongoing NMA 1st National Health summit in Asaba, the Delta State capital, said unless there was adequate advocacy there was no way the Nigerian worker would be effectively mobilized to contribute towards the NHIS.
He stressed that it may be impossible for state governments to contribute towards the NHIS when the beneficiaries were not motivated to contribute to it.
Uduaghan therefore called on civil servants to be prepared to make sacrifices and contribute towards the NHIS to enable state governments participate.
He said: “The National Health Insurance Scheme requires intensive advocacy if we wish to see it implemented in the country.
“The state governments alone cannot contribute towards making the insurance scheme a reality.
“So if civil servants also give their support the health insurance scheme will surely be implemented by the state governments.”
He stressed the need for the NMA to canvass for the insurance scheme, explaining that it would improve health care delivery in the country.
Besides, he said there was the need for secondary health institutions to have rural outreach programmes for children born in the rural sectors explaining that preventive health issues was a major challenge faced by rural dwellers.
The governor disclosed that the State Teaching Hospital at Oghara has began a neo-natal outreach for expectant mothers and children in the rural sectors and charged the NMA to create a work plan in which all hospitals would carry out rural outreaches as well.
Uduaghan noted that such exercise would help in the reduction of mortality rate in rural areas across the country.
He said: “The major challenge rural dwellers face is not having adequate access to medical assistance that is why we in Delta have started a neo-natal outreach for mothers and children.
“I therefore call on the NMA to come up with a work plan to ensure that all hospitals carry out rural outreaches too.”
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