Health indices of Africans have stagnated - Report

Despite decades of efforts to provide effective, equitable and affordable healthcare services, the health indices of Africans have stagnated and in some instances have deteriorated, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, Nigeria Health Minister said on Tuesday.

In a speech read on her behalf by Mary Okpeseyi, Chief Pharmacist of Nigeria, at the Second International Medical and Pharmaceutical Exhibition and Conference in Accra, the Minister said Africa was the only continent that had not fully benefited from recent advances in biomedical sciences that has brought health tools and technologies to tackle most of the disease burden.

The three-day conference is on the theme: “The Role of Capacity and skill Development in Healthcare Delivery”.

Prof Chukwu said several factors were responsible for the state of affairs, however, he noted that there was the increasing recognition that the major limiting factors to improved health outcomes were not the lack of financial resources or health technologies but lack of implementation capacity which depends on the presence of a functional health system.

“The failure to develop and deploy an appropriate and motivated health work force, and the environment necessary for the workforce to perform optimally was a critical determinant of the health status of Africans”

In realization of this, he said, many countries have embarked on health sector reforms with the view to optimizing the use of available resources in improving access, efficiency and quality healthcare services provided.

Nigeria, he noted, was left out of the process of reforming her health sector system in order to improve and accelerate the achievement of MDGs, adding that, the big challenge, however, was to reorganize, align and re-orient the human resources for health to ensure efficiency in health care delivery.

For this reason, the Nigerian government will strive to double its effort to develop, review and implement policies that will enable the nation improve capacity and skill development as well as overcome challenges in order to achieve the vision of the health sectors to reduce the mortality and morbidity due to communicable diseases to the barest minimum among others.

Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Alfred Tia Sugri, said increasing political drive, expanding foreign investment opportunities and strengthening local capacity has resulted in significant growth in the health sector.

According to him, Ghana has pioneered several areas in the health industry, including expanding health information systems, health insurance coverage and a strong primary health care.

These, notwithstanding, the Deputy Minister said the country still faced several challenges and remain extremely interested in harnessing the various local and international stakeholders to see the emergence of a strong, sustainable and profitable healthcare industry and a healthy populace.

Dr Leka Pitan, Advisor for Africa, International Hospital Federation (IHF), who spoke on the topic: Leadership and Management Skills development in Healthcare, said hospital managers should be good health professionals and able managers who would optimize returns on investment.

He said hospital management was serious business that requires skill and expertise that would reap desired benefits and outcomes adding that patients should be seen as clients whose services rake in financial resources for the optimal management of the hospital.

“The client should be seen as such and not someone who needs a favour because in one way or the other someone pays for the services rendered to him through either health insurance or out of pocket payment," he said.

Dr Wale Alabi, Project Director of Medipharma Africa, organizer of the conference, said it would create a platform that would contribute to the development of a sector by promoting and creating business opportunities in healthcare on the continent.

He stated that the theme of the conference was a subject of discussion and debate among the continent’s health care leaders.

“Addressing these challenges is an absolute imperative if we are to manage and ultimately overcome the fundamental healthcare challenges facing this vast and beautiful continent of ours, required for us and future generation of Africans to fully achieve our economic and social impact in the world,” he said

The high point of this year’s event will be the hosting of the first Annual Midwives Workshop in collaboration with the Government Registered Midwives Association (GRMMA).