Rakiya A.Muhammad
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics (MSSFPO) Country Program Manager Kabiru Atta has lamented the state of surgical care in Nigeria but revealed hopes to change the narrative.
“Nigeria has only 1.65 per 100,000 population indicating a surgical workforce crisis,” he said.
Atta explained that there is only one surgeon, obstetrician, and anaesthetist per 100,000 population against the recommended 20/100,000 population.
“Only 166/100,000 surgeries are performed each year in the country against the recommended volume of 5,000/100,000,” Atta noted.
“This means that most people with a surgical disease do not receive the needed surgery.”
He stated this at a presentation on a 5-year National Surgical, Obstetrics, Anaesthesia and Nursing Plan (NSOANP), the Strategic Priorities for Surgical Care (StraPS), which provides a realistic assessment and situational analysis of the state of surgical care in Nigeria.
Speaking during a meeting with journalists in Sokoto, he noted about 65% or more of Nigerians are impoverished every year, and 66% incur catastrophic expenditure due to surgical care.
“Although health insurance exists, it covers only about 5% of the population, and there’s no financial risk protection against surgical care for a majority of Nigerians,” he observed.
The MSSFPO Program Manager also noted most Nigerians have no access to a healthcare facility that can provide safe and affordable emergency and essential surgical, obstetrics and anaesthesia care.
He, however, said the NSOANP Plan hopes to change the narrative in five years, noting aspects of the workforce, infrastructure, service delivery, health information, finance, governance and leadership.
“An increase in the surgical workforce density from 1.65 per 100,000 to 5 per 100,000 by the year 2025 is the aim,” he disclosed
“Targets are to increase residency training positions to 1,000 per year and increase the number of trained nurses by 50%.”
He pointed out NSOANP’s strategic objective to strengthen existing healthcare facilities at all levels to provide emergency and essential surgical care and achieve financial risk protection for 50% of the population by 2023.
“Budgetary allocation to health should be progressively increased to achieve 15% allocation by 2023 to strengthen the healthcare system through investment in surgical care,” he stated.
“Innovative ways of financing including Private sector funding vehicles should drive financing models.”
On Health information management, the Manager said NSOANP hopes to reverse the current situation whereby it is still paper-based in practically all public hospitals making access to patient records across multiple visits and multispecialty visits difficult.
“The goals are to have fully functional electronic medical record services in all hospitals in 5 years and include surgical, obstetrics, anaesthesia and nursing data in Nigeria demographic and health survey (NDHS).”
Atta said NSOANP also aims to strengthen healthcare governance and leadership, among other objectives.
“Efficient governance and leadership are crucial to strong, resilient and responsive healthcare system for the provision of safe, affordable and timely surgical care.”
According to him, MSSFPO envisions a national healthcare system that responds to the surgical needs of all citizens at all times.
The MSSFPO, a USAID-funded initiative,’ supports country efforts to strengthen surgical safety within maternal health and voluntary family planning programs by promoting evidence-based approaches, testing new innovations and scaling up proven practices.’
The project’s focus technical areas in Nigeria include surgical obstetric care, fistula prevention and care, and female genital mutilation prevention and management.
It has Engender Health as a prime consortium partner while co-implementing partners include IntraHealth, Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communication Programs and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“Investing in surgical, obstetrics, anaesthesia and nursing care”, Atta pointed out, “offers significant gains by increasing economic productivity.”
