The Health Of Nations – Nigeria Is Still A Sick Nation, Yet To Revamp Its Healthcare

You must have heard the report created by Economist Intelligence Unit for GE in order to access how countries are positioned to meet the critical healthcare challenges facing them in the years ahead. The developed world will continue to access cost efficiency- that high cost does not mean good healthcare delivery; firms that take better care of their workers tend to outperform the market; healthcare is a long-term national strategy, etc.

But in mother Nigeria, we are still trying to solve problems that have since been removed in the dictionary of most modern world. TB, polio, malaria, etc are all problems. The following are summarizes of  the report:

•  Total expenditure on healthcare in Nigeria was an estimated 2.6% of GDP in 2008, of which around 70% was spent in the private sector. At around US$28 per head, spending on healthcare in Nigeria was lower than in most other Sub-Saharan countries.
•  The backlog of work that needs to be carried out on the healthcare system, coupled with the growing demands on it, will ensure that the state health sector remains seriously under-funded, with many hospitals and clinics in poor condition.
•  Increased government spending has gone on providing new facilities, largely in primary healthcare. However, government facilities lack modern medical equipment, have poorly qualified staff and suffer shortages of drugs. Although government-funded primary healthcare centres account for the majority of medical facilities in Nigeria, the private sector provides the majority of secondary healthcare facilities.
•  As with many African countries, Nigeria is facing a huge potential health crisis caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Nearly 3m people in Nigeria are living with HIV/AIDS, with a prevalence rate of 3.1%: after South Africa, Nigeria rivals India for the second-highest rate of infection in the world.

In June 2006 the government launched a five-year scheme to reduce malaria, including better use of insecticide-treated nets. Although the government says that it is making headway in tuberculosis treatment, a recent World Health Organisation report found that Nigeria had the fifth-largest number of tuberculosis cases in the world in 2006.

You can read more about this on the  GE Health of Nations