Dr. Tunji Alausa, the minister of state for health, claims that the private sector in Nigeria provides more than 60 per cent of the country’s healthcare without sufficient oversight.
He claimed that this gave rise to unlawful activities such as organ harvesting.
While promising to address this, he said the Federal Government would soon draft legislation regulating the healthcare industry in order to get rid of quacks and guarantee better service.
Alausa made this statement on Friday during a courtesy visit to Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta.
He decried the unwholesome practice where untrained people are allowed to operate in the health sector.
“We will be pushing for a new regulation to regulate the healthcare sector as more than 60 per cent of the nation’s healthcare is in the hands of the private sector without adequate supervision.
“You see hospitals, laboratories, and diagnostic centres being run without anybody checking on what they are doing and these are some of the places where illegal practices like organ harvesting are taking place.
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“What we are going to do at the federal level is to set up a Health Facility Regulatory Commission that will start regulating the standard of health care across the country and we expect the states to set up their own regulatory bodies as well,” he said.
Alausa also made hints that the federal government was going to launch a program to boost the number of healthcare providers. The program would start with the admission of 10,000 medical students annually and increase the number of nurses admitted from 28,000 to 68,000 annually.
The minister shed more light on the Sectoral Approach Program, which was introduced by President Bola Tinubu. She said that 1% of the consolidated fund was allocated to Basic Health Provision, 55% to Primary Healthcare Centers, 45% to National Health Insurance, and 5% to Emergency Services.
In response, Governor Abiodun declared that his administration would not think twice about copying any federal initiative meant to eradicate quack medicine from the healthcare industry.
“Let me assure you that in terms of the regulation that would allow for tighter regulatory functions over medical practitioners to prevent quackery, we will not hesitate to replicate at the state level.
“We are one of the two states that have put in place a board for alternative medicine because we realized that a lot of our people, especially pregnant women, are patronizing traditional birth attendants. We regulate and certify them to ensure we have some form of oversight in their activities,” Abiodun explained.
