FG’S health agenda is universal, says Health minister

From ODIMMEGWA JOHNPETER, Abuja

THE Federal Government current priority on Health is to provide universal health coverage to Nigerians.

The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole disclosed this in Abuja during his first official working visit to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

In practical demonstration of this commitment, the Minister disclosed that the federal Government is mobilizing required resources to make 10,000 Primary Health Care centers functional in all the political wards in the country in the next two years.

According to the Minister, each of the 10,000 centers, which would be one per political ward, would be designed to operate 24 hours each day with a view to providing comprehensive PHC services, including maternal and child health services.

The PHC agenda of the administration, the Minister emphasized, was geared towards providing universal care to about 100 million vulnerable Nigerians, while also addressing the huge financial burden of out of pocket expenditure which has over the years hindered access to health care.

Professor Adewole commended the leadership of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency for a job well done especially on the Polio eradication achievement by the country.

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The minister assured the National Primary Health Care Development Agency leadership of his total support on Primary Health Care revitalization and primary health Care under one roof in the country.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Director, National Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Muhammad highlighted the major achievement of the Agency, on-going projects and the challenges.

According to Dr. Ado Muhammad, Nigeria had no single case of wild spread Polio virus in the past 20 months, recalling Nigeria delisting from Polio-endemic Countries y World Health Organization (WHO) in October last year.

Dr. Ado also informed the Minister that Nigeria had no case of vaccine stock out in the last 2 years, adding that the county had enough vaccines that would last her till the first quarter of 2017.