By Badero Olusola
Health care is defined as "the organized provision of medical care to individuals or a community." While universal health care (or government run health care system) is defined as "a specific type of health care where everyone is provided coverage regardless of their income, race, age, pre-existing conditions, gender, or wealth. In other words, as long as you are a legal resident of the region that is being covered, (i.e., the United States), you are eligible for universal health care."
I live in Glasgow, a Scottish city in Britain and I want to use their health care delivery success as a case study in this piece.
According to the (disputed) 2006 population census, Ogun state was populated by 3,728,098. And nine years after, we are expected to have cross the 5million population mark. The population of Scotland was 5,347,600 in mid-2014 and this leaves us at par with them in head counts.
The NHS Scotland is adjudged the best in the whole of the United Kingdom, back in 2011. That record is yet to be broken. Not with the new Southern General Hospital in Glasgow - the biggest construction in the UK's health sector in recent time.
The Nuffield Trust study of full-time equivalent of GPs found that Scotland had 1,407 patients per GP in 2011, with England at 1,504, then Wales at 1,641. Data wasn’t available for Northern Ireland.
Apparently, a medical consultant (doctor) will attend to the health care needs of 1,407 patients in a year. He/she will have the opportunity of knowing his patient one on one. GP employment in Scotland was the healthiest of any of the four home nations in 2011 with around 0.9 GPs for every 1,000 patients, according to a wide-ranging longitudinal study of the NHS.
Government of Scotland finances the health care through a program called "NHS Scotland". The NHS was launched in 1948.
It was born out of a long-held ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth – a principle that remains at its core. With the exception of some charges, such as prescriptions and optical and dental services, the NHS in England remains free at the point of use for anyone who is a UK resident. That is currently more than 64.1 million people in the UK and 53.9 million people in England alone.
I know how hyped the "Free Health Care" was as the early stage of the current administration in Ogun. But free health care is not all about giving free paracetamol to the sick, or free eye surgeries for the few in the society. Universal Health Care or "Free Health Care" is expected to be where everyone is provided coverage regardless of their income, race, age, pre-existing conditions, gender, or wealth. In other words, as long as you are a legal resident of the region that is being covered, (i.e., the United States), you are eligible for universal health care. when I said "all", it means everyone should be able to walk into an hospital and get attended to, poor or rich.
Check out these facts on how Scotland's government has been maintaining good health delivery for their people;
* There are approximately 157,000 NHS staff in Scotland for a population of 5,295,400. (Source: ISD Workforce Headcount March 2013 / National Records of Scotland, 2011 Census)
* There are over three hundred NHS Hospitals in Scotland. (Source: ISD NHS Hospitals in Scotland as at June 2013)
* There were 1.65 million A&E visits in Scotland in 2012/13 – roughly equivalent to 1 every 20 seconds. (Source: ISD Emergency Department Activity and Waiting Times)
* Of approximately £34.7 billion controlled by the Scottish Government, around £11.9 billion is spent on health. (Source: Figures are for 2013-14, quoted from the Budget Act 2013-14 and relate to total managed expenditure (TME).)
* The new Southern General Hospital in Glasgow is one of Scotland’s biggest construction projects – with £842 million of public funding to modernise health services.
* In financial year 2007/08 there were 23.2 million (face to face) consultations with GPs or practice nurses. This compares with 24.2 million in 2011/12. (Source: Practice Team Information (PTI) 2011/12 : Published on 27 November 2012 : Information Services Division)
* 89 per cent of GP patients and 85 per cent of inpatients rated their care as good or excellent in 2011/12. (Source: Scottish Government: Better Together Scottish Patient Experience Survey of GP and Local NHS Services / Scottish Inpatient Patient Experience Survey)
Ogun State may not have the £Billions to offset the huge health care demands of her people, but we can do it in a more worthy and rewarding ways than what we currently have.
in 2011, immediately after his inauguration, the state Governor declared a state of emergency in the health sector. But sadly, two years later, the state's NMA (Nigerian Medical Association) Chairman took the state government to the cleaners where he outrightly declared, "there is no free health care in Ogun state hospitals, stop harassing the staffs".
In his words, he said;
“Health is the second point on the agenda but our mid-term assessment shows an abysmal failure. Primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare remain underfunded or unfunded which have resulted into adhoc or make shift services. The community based health insurance services has remained a “talk show” and quality hospital services have become a thing of the past."
“The Teaching Hospital has no management boards and hence for every decision to be taken, the case has to get to the commissioner who in turn will pass it to the Governor.
“This infrastructural decay in all strata is also intertwined with lack of capacity development and personnel afflictions which have been on for some years preceding this administration. If there is perceived affliction by the personnel, this will cascade down to service provision because the morale is going to be heavily dampened.
“The Ogun state government has committed a lot of infractions against the medical doctors in Ogun state and we can only beg the government to forgive us our sins”. end quote.
to be continued...
What should the government do to get out of this quagmire?
Don't miss the part 2.
Maiyegun General
Glasgow.
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