The Mazi Organization said its attention has been drawn to the ongoing efforts of the Imo State Government to enroll 2.7 million Imo people under the Imo State Health Insurance policy.
Throwing light on the challenges, Cajetan Duke, JP, the TMO Spokesperson said, “Recently, the Imo State Government under the leadership of Senator Hope Uzodimma announced plans to expand primary healthcare coverage through the Imo State Health Insurance Agency, IMSHIA, with the enrollment of 2.7 million Imo residents. The government described it as the largest single health insurance enrollment in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 2.7 million enrollees in 654 communities at 100,000 per Local Government Area”.
“Because health is a human right and a duty of the state, the latest move is a step in the right direction that deserves commendation, but given the fragmented healthcare system in Imo State, lack of comprehensive healthcare infrastructure, and coverage, questions therefore arise.”
“How can the healthcare coverage as envisaged by the state government be expanded without commensurate expansion of healthcare infrastructure? Healthcare infrastructure encompasses the essential physical facilities, human resources, and technological systems that enable the delivery of healthcare services. This includes hospitals, clinics, medical equipment, healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses, and electronic health records.”
“Healthcare infrastructure is indeed a crucial component of a functioning healthcare system, ensuring access to care, quality of service, and overall public health.”
“It is true that because of the manifest inadequate healthcare infrastructure, Imo State lacks appropriate referral system from primary healthcare as regards health centres to secondary healthcare as regards General Hospitals and tertiary healthcare as regards Teaching hospitals.”
“Without doubt, the state of healthcare infrastructure in Imo State presently is deplorable and quite disturbing. In fact, it requires that a state of emergency should be declared in Imo State healthcare system.”
“Apart from the tertiary hospitals in Owerri, Orlu, Okigwe, which are privately owned with the exception of Federal Medical Centre/Federal University Teaching Hospital, General Hospital, Umuguma, General Hospital in Umuokanne, Ohaji-Egbema, Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu, Arthur Nzeribe Memorial General Hospital, Oguta, 100-bed Mother and Child Hospital at Awo-Omamma, Michael Uzodimma Memorial Hospital, Omuma in Oru East – Imo State is truly deficient in terms of tertiary hospitals.”
“Another awful truth is that Imo State has about 563 primary health centers, which are grossly dysfunctional and ill-equipped. Our view is that the administration of Uzodimma should have undertaken a thorough study of the challenges in the primary healthcare space to have reliable data to design adequate strategies to address them before embarking on the planned expansion.”
“For instance, instead of having over 563 dysfunctional health centers, the government should consider developing 305 world-class Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centres, PHC, across the 305 wards in Imo State, that will provide 24-hour services in each ward, so that at any time, one would have access to quality primary healthcare in rural communities across the state.”
“In addition, the Imo State government should have given adequate attention to secondary healthcare by upgrading nursing schools to colleges so that Imo State can have more intakes, more nurses, and community health extension workers trained to man our PHC facilities for the planned expansion of healthcare coverage. Capturing all the reports of those that have access to the healthcare system in an electronic form can help the state have an electronic health management system with the aim of bringing more Imo citizens under universal health insurance coverage – which is cheaper and more reliable.”
“We are also not in agreement with the N15,000 enrollment fee, which when multiplied by 100,000 for each Local Government Area, the figure will be N1.5 billion, and forty billion, five hundred million (N40,500,000,000) naira when multiplied by 27 – a huge amount of money that the government has not given details about how it will be expended – there is a need for public accountability.”
“The government so far has also failed to disclose to Imo people the agencies and organizations involved, what they are bringing to the table, and what they are expecting from Imo State as payment. What kind of health services will be provided in reality and at what cost?”
“The Imo State government should also provide subsidies to those with lower incomes to help them pay for the healthcare coverage.”
“We expect the Uzodimma administration to do everything to ensure drastic improvement on Imo State healthcare performance index; and such efforts should continue up to a point where every child, every mother, and every elderly person in the state has access to primary healthcare” the TMO concluded.