By Bridget Ikyado
Abuja – The new Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Benue, Dr Usha Anenga, says the group will organise a forum to interact with governorship candidates on their plans for the health sector.
Anenga, who disclosed this in an interview in Makurdi, said that the interaction was necessary in view of the poor health facilities in the state
“I want to invite the top aspirants of the top political parties seeking the governorship position to come and speak to us.
“Our primary level of healthcare is almost non-existent in the country and this has put a lot of weight on secondary health facilities which are also in comatose and then the tertiary health system.
“Our advocacy is that both level of healthcare should be well funded, better staffed, better health infrastructure and better consumables,” he added.
The NMA chairman also said that the interaction would focus on the need to strengthen the state health insurance scheme.
“What health insurance does is it provides healthcare and makes it available.
“When you have qualified personnel and infrastructure but the people cannot afford it, is not encouraging.
“It is to ensure that the Benue health insurance agency is up and running, so that the people too can benefit from it,” Anenga said.
He said that the doctors planned to hold health outreach while marking their week, to offer basic treatment to patients in rural areas.
This, he said, was to highlight the importance of primary health centres and encourage government to invest in such facilities.
“Most of the illnesses are in the communities.
“If we carry out these outreaches, do medical and surgical consultations, conduct free surgeries, I think that will go a long way in reducing the burden of illnesses in our communities,” he said.
The NMA chief pledged to initiate programmes that would improve the condition of medical doctors in the state, including their welfare and workplaces.
“There are some projects that were initiated by my predecessors and I intend to consolidate on them.
“Some of the projects are the construction of the NMA House, publishing a journal and issuing identity cards to members.
“There are some of our doctors that are lagging behind when it comes to welfare, payment of salaries. I intend to look into those issues,” he said.
He added that the association would collaborate with
governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as security agencies in protecting medical personnel in the state.
According to him, doctors are now soft targets of criminals and it is necessary to provide the latter adequate security to enable them to discharge their duties effectively.
“I intend to digitise some of our projects and sustain our fight against quackery.
“We need to digitise it in such a way that it will be easy for the public to report cases of quackery,” Anenga said.
According to him, healthcare expertise is available in Benue and so people need not travel to India to get a service that is readily available in the state.
On brain drain, he said most medical doctors moved to other countries because over there, their “welfare is being taken care of, with better pay and good infrastructure.
“One of our activities is to advocate for an improvement in the funding of the healthcare sector.
“Healthcare should take at least 15 per cent of budget allocation, but we are struggling to reach 5 per cent in this country.
“It is my intention that we will try to do advocacy to increase funding and by increasing funding, the remuneration of doctors will increase, doctors will be paid salaries as when due and better welfare packages for them.
“Even the health infrastructure will be more available in our hospitals so that condition of service will be better for doctors,” Anenga said. (NAN / vitalnewsngr.com)
