Health Insurance panacea for Lagos maternal mortality scourge--Stakeholders insist

Some stakeholders in the health sector including Civil Society Executives, have once again called on Lagos State government to urgently start the implimentation of it's 2015 Health Scheme  Law which makes it mandatory for all Lagosians to have a health insurance coverage at affordable cost, describing it as a panacea for the alarming child and maternal mortality in the state.

The Lagos based health stakeholders spoke based on the recently released scorecard for the state ,produced by the Lagos State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal and Newborn Health (SLAMS) in February, 2018 with support from MamaYe - Evidence for Action.

Adebusoye

Compared to previous years, the scorecard indicators, show performance especially in Public Health Facilities in Lagos but scarcity and sometimes  high cost of essential Services including family planning consumables, were identified as stumbling blocks.

For instance, while only 13percent of women aged between 15 and 49 used contraceptives, 37 percent of babies were fully immunized before clocking one year, 48 percent of pregnant women had access to full malaria doses and 46 percent attended started antenatal in the recommended 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Consequently, the state still accounts for 24 percent of child and maternal mortality burden in Nigeria  with 555 women out of 100,000 dying  annually as a result of complications during pregnancy and childbirth; it is equivalent to six women dying every hour.e is said to still account for over 24 percent 

Reacting, the Chairman

Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative (PHSAI), Lagos Mr. Ayo Adebusoye, who identified poverty as a major factor restricting people from accessing good health services, resulting to the high child and  maternal mortality, said with the State Health Scheme Law, that obstacle would be broken because the masses  would no longer have to pay in bulk.

"The  Lagos State Health Scheme Law 2015 is a major potential catalyst for universal health coverage and maternal mortality reduction. It would guarantee sustained funding for Reproductive Health / Family Planning that is the major challenge at the State and Local Government levels" he said.

Also calling for the sustained funding of the  health sector through adequate budgetary allocation based as it done in societies that have gotten it rightly, Mr. Adebusoye who is the face of several health advocacy organisations in Lagos, identified the upgrade of Primary Health Centres by as among major achievements  in efforts to address high maternal mortality.

His words, " the setting

 up of flagship PHCs in all LGAs during the last administration and procuring ambulances for the secondary facilities at the beginning of the present administration were so far major sign of progress".

Following significant reduction in stock out of essential life-saving commodities in PHCs as revealed by the  scorecard indicators

SLAMs implored " the State Ministry of health and its agencies to sustain this progress and ensure that it achieve 100% stock availability of those essential life-saving commodities that improves Maternal and Newborn Health in all the Public health Facilities offering Maternal and Child health services in the state.

"They also ask that the state Ministry of Health should create a dedicated budget line for the distribution of Public health Commodities to the last mile".

In another development , 

Mr Akin Jimoh, the Programme Director, DEVCOMS,  while a courtesy visit on the News News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at Iganmu, Lagos , recently said no efforts should be spared addressing obstacles to quality health care delivery to pregnant women, stressing that maternal mortality was not an issue to be overlooked.

"The causes are broad, ranging from unwanted pregnancy that lead to abortions, haemorrhage, sepsis to poor healthcare services and delays.

“They include inability to take prompt decisions before going to a health facility, unavailability of transportation to access the health facility, as well as the proximity of health facilities.

“Delays can also come from factors that affect prompt treatment such as power supply, unavailability of qualified medical personnel, drugs, consumables among others.

“There is need for individuals, health workers, government and the media to know that we are all stakeholders in this issue.

“We can be victims in one way or the other; so, it is necessary to intensify the need for good maternal health because without good heal" he explained.

Reported by Radio Nigeria on 10 April 2018