By Cosmas Omegoh
Recently, some startling revelations were made in the health care delivery system in Lagos State.
At the yearly meeting of Christian Health Association of Nigeria (CHAN), Lagos State chapter, the body said it provides 40 and 70 per cent of health care needs of urban and rural dwellers in the state, respectively.
It also came to the fore that, aside from the devastating impact of COVID-19, the exodus of professionals, particularly in the health sector, the one now referred to as called ‘Japa’, meaning overseas rush, has placed health care in Lagos State at a risk. Medical personnel, particularly those in the faith-based institutions, are leaving the country in their droves for greener pastures overseas.
CHAN is an umbrella body of all medical health institutions operated by the Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Methodist Church, Baptist Church, Presbyterian Church and Redeemed Christian Church, among others. They are called mission institutes, or MI, for short.
Every year, CHAN gathers its members at a tribunal to review their individual and collective performances and strategies aimed at delivering health care in the areas where they operate. After the meeting, the tribunal judge – usually a lawyer – brings down his gavel to make certain verdicts.
In 2021, the meeting did not hold because of COVID-19 restrictions. So, it was postponed.
This year’s gathering held at the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Sabo Yaba, Lagos, with several dignitaries and representatives of various MIs, Lagos State government, Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA), the clergy and other professionals in attendance.
The event opened with prayers by Very Reverend Bamidele Abraham, representing the Archbishop of the Methodist Church, Lagos Mainland, Most Rev. Dr. Obafemi Bamidele Adeleye.
In his opening remarks, the CHAN chairman, Lagos State chapter, Dr. Abayomi Ogunbekun, thanked the members and other dignitaries for their presence. Thereafter, the tribunal chairman, Mr. Olukayode Balogun, declared the event open.
Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Fini Oluwatoyin, a representative of the director, Lagos State Primary Health Education Board, and the permanent secretary in the agency, gave the goodwill message of the state government. She praised CHAN for its good works and expressed government’s willingness to work with the body to achieve improved healthcare for the citizenry.
Rev. Sr. Helen Maris Oyekanmi, representative of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos Health Department (CALHD), presented a review of her church’s activities within the period, revealing that the body runs 43 MIs across the state.
She outlined CALHD’s services as comprehensive health services and education, as well as social activities. She said their services also included HIV/AIDS care and counselling, mother-and-child care, and support for the aged and orphans, among others.
She further revealed that CALHD employs 964 health professionals, aside from other support and technical staff, but lamented seriously that the health care professionals in their fold had continued to migrate overseas. She complained of rising operational costs, and low patronage and the urgent need to sustain service delivery.
She said: “We are faced with dwindling patronage and inability to sustain our skilled health professionals who keep leaving us for greener pastures.
“We are also faced with challenges of poor power, drugs and oxygen supply. We need hematology analysers and much more to give care to the poorest of the poor.”
A representative of Baptist Medical Centre, Obanikoro, Lagos, Olumiyi Olabode, presented his organisation’s performance in the past few years. He stated that the centre was established as an annex of Baptist Medical Centre, Ogbomosho, now Bowen University Teaching Hospital. He said the centre offered services in various branches of medicine, ophthalmology, surgery, dentistry and many more, and employed several hundreds of health care professionals. He too lamented dwindling patronage, regretting that their top-flight professionals were jetting overseas every now and then. He called for financial and governmental support to provide accommodation and sustain their services.
Similarly, Dr. Adebola Popoola, of Hoarse Memorial Methodist Cathedral Clinic, Sabo, Yaba, traced the history of the facility to 1967, averring that it had come a long way. Like others, the facility offers various medical services to the public, irrespective of region or religion. He lamented the impact of COVID-19 on their operations, exit of staff, inadequate funding and poor electrictiy supply, adding that the facility needed upgrading. He called for a public-private partnership, assuring the audience that they were in good stead to provide first-class services.
While assessing the performance of all MIs in Lagos State, the chairman, Dr Ogunbekun, recalled that statistics before him proved that “40 per cent of the healthcare services in the city is provided by us, while 70 per cent of such services in the rural areas is also provided by us.”
He said such services cover primary, secondary and tertiary levels in the state. He, therefore, asked for improved government partnership in managing health in Lagos State, adding that the way forward was for the government to dialogue with CHAN.
He called on “the Lagos State House of Assembly to provide 2 per cent of the state’s budget for MIs for effective healthcare delivery in the state.”
He recalled how the MIs were fully involved in managing COVID-19 in the state, and how “we have been donating various drugs such Abandazole we received from CHAN’s health partners to various primary health centres in the state and others managed by Islamic clinics.”
According to him, “We have the capacity to bring health care delivery closer to the people because we realise that the government cannot do it all alone. That is where we come in.”
In his contributions, Ogunlaja acknowledged that CHAN provides quality services to the people and wants the government to realise that it cannot do it alone.
He said: “Many other private concerns providing services are merely in business.
“They have to make their money. The government on its part can only attempt to do so much, yet so little as the population continues to grow exponentially.
“But what CHAN is doing is more like the work of evagelisation. That is where the government has to step in and give the body what it can as subsidy.”
He, therefore, urged that the work of CHAN at the grassroots should be acknowledged so that prevention of cases would be taken seriously to prevent health issues being a huge burden to the government.
In her response, Dr. Skinat Oredein, the medical director, Yaba LCDA, gave the goodwill message of the permanent secretary, and the state ministry of health. She said recommendations so far made would be forwarded to the government to ensure effective healthcare delivery in the state.
In his judgment, the tribunal judge lamented that the political class does not have confidence in the health care system of the country, hence its members are always streaming abroad for medicare.
He said it was for that reason that health care professionals were jetting out in their numbers yet the leadership did not consider it urgent to halt the trend. “That is why we are having ‘Japa’ because our well trained professionals are fleeing abroad to greener pastures.”
He went on to rule that “for an organisation in Lagos to provide 40 per cent of the city’s healthcare need and 70 per cent of the state’s rural dwellers’ need is no mean feat. There, I call on the government to work with CHAN in this regard and do a lot of intervention here.”