‘Nigerian health sector needs public, private sectors’ collaboration’

Managing Director, Premium Health, Ladi Okubuoyejo, at the 9th annual general meeting in Lagos said, for health sector to achieve desired results and receive more strengthening in the country, there is a need for public and private collaboration.

This is coming on the heels of success recorded from the partnership between the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the HMOs in the provision of quality and affordable health services to Nigerians.

According to him, government need to strengthen the collaboration between public and private sectors. We can see example of that in the operation of the NHIS, a regulatory body partnered with the private sector in order to be able to deliver its goods and services to the Nigerian people. And this has worked very well. A lot of the HMOs are partnering with NHIS to provide health insurance cover for Nigerians,”he said.

He further added that, there is need for privatisation of the teaching hospital facilities for improved health services delivery in the country, insisting that privatising teaching hospitals will improve their services because when they privatise they will be forced to improve their services because they will be self-sustaining. That is the kind of thing required to move the health sector forward.

In addition, Okubuoyejo said,with this you will see an improved healthcare facilities.

During discussion, he told the shareholders that the organisa-tion has been accredited as a national HMO, saying that with this in place, opportunities are now available for it to sign agreements with all states in the federation as the Federal Government  plans to roll out the Universal Healthcare Coverage Scheme for primary school children all over the federation before the end of the year. About 24 million children are expected to be covered by this scheme.

Commenting, Okubuoyejo said Premium Health poised to take full advantage of the Lagos State Health Bill, which will see an industry boom in HMO requirements.

“Thus, the organisation is preparing itself with a re-energised focus on strengthening its brand through collaborations and partnership. In partcular, our work as a multinational provider of health insurance cover and health manage-ment schemes means we are proud to announce the launch of our new clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which sees a continued growth in our international operation,” he concluded.

- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com