Stakeholders proffer solutions to high cost of healthcare services
Healthcare
Lagos, July 6, 2018 (NAN) Some healthcare providers and patients in Lagos have called for more, functional, accessible and affordable healthcare facilities to save lives and prevent medical tourism.
The stakeholders made the appeal while fielding questions from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the high cost of diagnosis and healthcare consumables in the country.
They attributed the difficulty in accessing efficient and quality healthcare services to distant facilities, exorbitant cost of consumables, multiple taxes, infrastructure and near absence of social amenities, including electricity and water supply.
According to them, there is need for government to subsidise cost of care, as well as put in structures to ensure good service delivery.
Mr Elochukwu Adibo, the Laboratory Director, El-Lab Medical Diagnostics and Research Centre, Lagos, told NAN that the first component of making healthcare accessible and affordable was the availability of the facilities.
According to him, after having a facility that can deliver the service required, the next component to look out for will be, paying for the services.
“Some people come to the private practice to access healthcare and they say it is expensive.
“For you to get quality healthcare right now, it involves a lot and that is why some people say it is expensive,’’ he said.
Adibo, who is also a Biomedical Scientist, explained that getting consumables like reagents and running the facilities was capital intensive.
“To run a good facility 24 hours, alternative source of power such as generators, inverters and solar should be available.
“As an International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) accredited laboratory, we need to make sure that everything runs 24 hours without interruption; it costs a lot to do that.
“When you factor all that in and bring the cost of your service, like malaria and blood sugar test on the table for walk-in patients, some may find it expensive,’’ he said.
Adibo urged governments to support private practitioners by providing subsidy that would help reduce the cost of quality healthcare delivery.
Mrs Esther Iyede, Head of Laboratory Services, Amuwo Odofin Maternal and Child Centre (AOMCC) , FESTAC Lagos, said that healthcare services were cheaper at public hospitals because the services were subsidised by governments.
Iyede explained that most patients believed that healthcare services should be completely free at the government hospitals, without considering the cost of providing it.
According to her, some of the reagents used at the laboratory are expensive.
“Most of the reagents we use are not manual, which is cheaper but takes more time.
“If they are not subsidised, they will be more expensive.
“For example, to do a full blood count in the private may cost between N3,500 and N5,000 but here we do it for children at N1,500 and N2,000 for adults.
“If you want to talk about private hospitals with laboratories, these tests will go for as much as N10,000.
“I was shocked to hear that some hospitals charge as much as half a million naira for normal delivery, some even N1 million.
“But in government hospitals, it is not even up to N30,000; so if you compare the margin, it is more or less free,’’ she said.
The laboratory services head urged patients to take advantage of the government hospitals, which she said could boast of having qualified professionals in every department.
To strengthen diagnostic and healthcare services, a Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis, Oluyemi Akinloye, told NAN that there was need to develop capacity in improving health diagnosis across the country.
Akinkoye, who works at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), said: “Healthcare delivery system, especially diagnosis practice, in most part of the world is multi-disciplinary.
“This includes sociologist, engineers and professionals in healthcare system coming together to develop technology that are beneficiary to the patient.
“By the time we begin to care for the patients and seek methods that can be beneficial to them, the healthcare delivery system in this country will begin to change, including health diagnosis,’’ he said.
Akinloye urged government to heavily subsidise the cost of healthcare delivery for desired better services to be achieved.
“In most developed part of the world, healthcare services are usually prioritised and heavily subsidised by the government.
“But currently, the kind of system that we run is more isolated than a thin structure that the health system is naturally made to be,’’ he said.
According to him, both government and healthcare professionals need to show commitment to ensure quality healthcare delivery that will be beneficial to patients.
“The diagnoses of health diseases all over the world have changed over the years; there has been a lot of revolution where robotics is coming into diagnosis and the imaging technology is becoming highly sophisticated.
“Whereas, the diagnosis system in this country is low because we are still doing surface diagnosis.
“We are still looking at the organ function, when all over the world the emphasis has been on cellular and genomic diagnosis; so we still have a long way to go,’’ he said.
Akinloye, however, urged government at all levels to recognise the specialty, contributions and peculiarity of each member of the health team in order to achieve a well developed healthcare system.
Another medical practitioner, Dr Tunji Akintade, said that another solution to improving the situation would be to ensure transparency in the health insurance scheme.
Akintade, who is also the Chairman, Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), Lagos Chapter, said: “ The health insurance scheme should be for majority of the people.
“This will help those who cannot afford some medical bills to have access to good healthcare.
“So, the cost of some medical bills, laboratory tests, scan and others definitely affect quality healthcare delivery services.
“Also, neglect, attitude of staff, lack of funds and equipment also contribute to lack of accessible and affordable healthcare delivery services.’’
He said that the disparity of cost in both private and public hospital places were as a result of rent, wages, taxes, utility bills, staff salary, power and brand cost.
“The worries of payment of all these are in other government agencies and there is always budget for it.
“There is some concerted effort by the association to get a minimum tariff for the socio-economic status of different private hospitals in Lagos,” Akintade said.
He said that the full recognition of private hospitals in the constitution of Nigeria as a statutory body of health provider in private sector would also help healthcare system.
According to him, government should also put waivers on all pharmaceuticals, laboratory equipment and unique utility rates for health facilities.
He advised government at all levels to always encourage all health workers by providing good working environments, funds, equipment and necessary benefits.
Some patients also called on the Federal and State Governments to invest more in the health sector in order to alleviate the sufferings of many who could not afford to pay for healthcare.
The patients agreed that the high cost of diagnosis was limiting their access to quality healthcare; while those who could afford to pay for laboratory tests in spite of the high costs, said there was need to cushion the burden.
A patient, Mrs Naomi Badmus, said she took her elderly father for psychiatry evaluation and was told to carry out some tests.
She said that the cost added up to about N12,000, which she paid.
“Compared to private laboratories, the government owned laboratory offer lower costs for diagnosis.
“So, I am comfortable paying for healthcare in this Yaba Psychiatry Laboratory.
“However, the cost of healthcare generally is high; what we need is for the government to assist those who cannot afford to pay for anything at all to improve their lives,’’ she said.
Another patient, a 59-year-old man, Mr Fidelis Nwakwo, said he was given a bill of N4,500 to carry out tests that included full blood count to check his kidney function, which according to him, is expensive.
Nwakwo said: “I know that government hospitals still offer far cheaper than the private ones, but it is still a burden for those of us who cannot afford to pay.
“I do not have health insurance, because I do not work in an organisation that provides such for their employees.
“Paying for healthcare generally is a huge burden, especially for people in the rural areas.’’
Also, a 25-year-old graduate, Miss Maria Ifeoluwa, who had appendectomy, told NAN that she did a scan at a private facility for N8,000.
“It is very expensive to access healthcare in Nigeria; if people in the urban area are struggling to pay for healthcare, how much more for those in the rural areas.
“The government need to step up and improve our health sector so that people’s lives are improved.
“When a country has healthy citizens, it translates to a healthy and productive nation,’’ Ifeoluwa said.
Meanwhile, a new joint report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank, poor quality health services are holding back progress on improving health in countries at all income levels.
The report said that inaccurate diagnosis, medication errors, inappropriate or unnecessary treatment, inadequate or unsafe clinical facilities or practices, or providers who lack adequate training and expertise prevail in all countries.
The report, titled: “Delivering Quality Health Services – a Global Imperative for Universal Health Coverage’’, also highlighted that sickness associated with poor quality healthcare imposes additional expenditure on families and health systems.
According to the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, there can be no universal health coverage without quality care.
“Good health is the foundation of a country’s human capital, and no country can afford low-quality or unsafe healthcare,” the World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim said. (NAN)
Reporters/VIV/MST
Edited by Vivian Ihechu/Muhammad Suleiman Tola
