Rescind decision on tariff increase for health facilities in Lagos – NMA

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has appealed to the Lagos State Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) to rescind its decision on tariff increase for health facilities operating in the state.

Dr Saliu Oseni, Chairman, Lagos State branch of the association, made the plea at the NMA Lagos Elders Forum on Monday in Lagos.

Oseni said HEFAMAA had arbitrarily increased tariffs without consulting the stakeholders, adding that renewal of licence was increased by about 150 per cent, saying it was improper.

“For you to change anything in the health sector, the stakeholders should be involved; people that registered by late last year and early this year registered at old price.

“Suddenly, you introduced a new price. If you are going to do that, you will start the discussion this year and implement it next year.

“We do not even see the basis for the increment, because the amount collected currently is even too much compared to what is meant to be collected.

“The renewal for hospital was supposed to be N20, 000 and it was increased to N50, 000. After our complaints, some adjustments have been made, but we are yet to be communicated.

“What we are saying is that they should return to status quo because we were not carried along,” he said.

Oseni said private hospitals in the state had been faced with series of challenges that was affecting healthcare delivery in the state.

“We used to have over three thousand private hospitals in Lagos, but now, we have less than 2,500 private hospitals, as people are shutting down because of the overhead cost.

“Government is turning HEFAMAA into revenue generating agency which is wrong. HEFAMAA is a regulatory body and government should provide the tax payers’ money to run them.

“To give the target to HEFAMAA to raise revenue is absolutely not acceptable because it puts more burden on people who are already burdened,” he said.

The NMA boss noted that some policies of the governments were counter-productive to the health sector, citing the Federal Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017, as one of such policies.

Oseni said the Gunshot Act states that doctors report gunshot cases to the police within two hours, saying that in most cases, it was practically impossible.

According to him, if you are treating a bad gunshot patient, you may be on the patient for the next five hours without even thinking.

“The Act wants to criminalise you as a doctor attending to a gunshot patient, whereas government wants you to attend to people without pay and yet they are not providing funds to replenish your pocket.

“The target is against the doctor, but nobody is looking at the right of the doctors to earn wages because that is a constitutional right.

“I can give you treatment on credit, but you should have a way to pay back my money.

“You can imagine if I have 10 gunshot patients in the hospital in a month, I can tell you that in a critical gunshot situation, the cash spent on the patient can be as high as N500, 000.

“If I spend up to that amount on a patient, what will be my income.

“Meanwhile, Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) will come for tax and the government will want to bill me, these are critical issues.

“We have been talking to the government to look for a way to assist the private facilities,” he said.

The NMA chairman said those that passed the bill were not medical doctors, adding that the head of the House Committee on Health at that time was a veterinary doctor, thus oblivious of what was practicable.

Oseni said that the association converged the elders to brainstorm on mentoring and the appropriate steps to utilise toward resolving some of the challenges and policies affecting service delivery in the health sector.

Also, Dr Ayoade Adedokun, decried the absence of welfare of medical practitioners in the formation of various programmes and strategies of government intended to spur development in the health sector.

Adedokun was former Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.

He said that lack of adequate welfare for doctors had led to brain drain, burnout, suicide and increasing cases of substance abuse among the doctors.

Adedokun urged NMA to intensify efforts in advocating welfare improvement for health workers in both the public and private health sector.

Responding, Dr Adebayo Aderiye, Chairman, Lagos State Health Service Commission, said that beyond employing more doctors to address the challenges of brain drain in the sector, creating an enabling environment would encourage many medical professionals.

Aderiye said HEFAMAA was an agency of government set up by law, adding that HEFAMAA would not do anything outside the power given to it.

He said a meeting should be set up by NMA and HEFAMAA to resolve the issue, noting that private health facilities were in operation to complement government’s efforts in healthcare service delivery to the public. (NAN)