A former Deputy Governor of Osun, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has urged the Federal Government to embrace Public Private Partnership in order to tackle the challenges facing the health sector.
Omisore made the call on Wednesday in Ile-Ife while delivering a lecture at the 32nd National Conference/Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Health Service Administrators of Nigeria.
The forum had as theme: “Emerging Developments in Health Service Administration in Nigeria’’.
Omisore, who spoke on “Public-Private Partnership: An Alternative to Health Care Financing and Development in the Health Sector,” said the Federal Government alone could not finance the health sector.
He said with provisions of infrastructural facilities through PPP procurement models; different needs of each level of healthcare delivery would be met.
Omisore appealed to philanthropists and other stakeholders to support government in financing the health sector.
Earlier, the National President of IHSAN, Dr Atolani Oluboyede, had observed that PPP had been contributing to the development of the health sector globally.
Oluboyede said: “PPP has been accepted as a viable solution to the problem of healthcare financing all over the world; for more than two decades PPPs have been used to finance health infrastructure.
“Governments are increasingly looking for the PPP model to solve larger problems in healthcare delivery.
“There is no country in the world where healthcare is financed entirely by the government.
“While the provision of healthcare is widely recognised as the responsibility of government, private capital and expertise are increasingly viewed as sources to induce efficient and innovation. ”
He urged the Federal Government to embrace PPP in order to reduce the overall cost of healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
Oluboyede also urged operators in the sector to work in unison to provide medical services to the people.
He said: “The various professionals, individually and collectively, make their invaluable contributions to enable the patient to continue normal everyday activity.
“Any attempt to sideline any of these professional groups brings untold stress and hardship to the system resulting in poor or inadequate services to the patient.’’
Prof. Victor Adetiloye, the Chief Medical Director of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, commended IHSAN for its contributions to healthcare delivery.
Adetiloye said Nigeria had benefitted greatly in healthcare delivery through the PPP model.
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