Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has reiterated the commitment of the federal government towards attaining the universal health coverage set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.
He made this known yesterday during the launch of a Modular Healthcare facility by Alpha Mead Healthcare Management System initiative at the Gbagada General Hospital in Lagos.
Osinbajo, who was represented by the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, at the event, said the universal health coverage was divine in ensuring everyone has access to the needed key basic, preventive, and curative health services of good quality at an affordable cost without the risk of financial hardship hampering the paying for healthcare services.
According to him, “Alpha Mead Healthcare Management System initiative has appropriately captured the SDGs goal-9 which aims at building resilient infrastructure, promoting industrialisation and fostering innovation across sectors, including health, innovation, infrastructure, new skills technology, and development, which will therefore help drive out SDGs, including SDG-3, to achieve universal health coverage, a global priority to the attachment of 2030 agenda, especially in low and medium income countries.
“It therefore intends to improve the quality, equity and access to healthcare services for all in line with the SDG principle and mantra of ‘leaving no one behind’.
“Nigeria is committed to the attainment of universal health coverage, which is the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, as demonstrated by the president’s launch of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund on January 8, 2019, to accelerate the attainment of universal health coverage in Nigeria.
“As a country, Nigeria is making unwavering effort through the relevant ministry, department, and agencies (MDAs) of government to improve both geographical and financial access to quality healthcare services through aggressive healthcare infrastructure, development, and expansion horizontally and vertically.”
Osinbajo added: “The Alpha Mead Healthcare and Management Services Mobile Healthcare facilities have the potential to support the government efforts towards transforming medical diagnostics and reducing barrier to healthcare access in Nigeria.”
Speaking about the Modular Healthcare Facility (MHF), which is also the first of its kind in Africa, the Group Chairman of Alpha Mead Group, Mutiu Sunmonu, said the idea of the MHF was to aggressively drive the penetration of healthcare facilities in Nigeria by “reducing the construction timeline of a healthcare facility to less than 30 days, saving the time lost in design, construction, equipment installation and launching of regular brick and mortar healthcare facilities.”
He, therefore, added that the Nigerian health sector needed a massive up scaling, “and we are happy to be leading this innovation, particularly at a time like this.
“For us, the MHF is more than a just a healthcare facility; it is also an entrepreneurial package capable of serving both social and economic purposes by creating jobs and business opportunities for Small and Medium Scale Enterprise, professional healthcare workers, as well as support staff.”
SOURCE :THISDAYLIVE
