NHIS Partners with Nigerian Pharmacists on Universal Access to Health

PSN National President Azubuike Okwor announced this in Abuja when members of the society paid a courtesy visit on Dr Abdulrahman Sambo, the acting Executive Secretary of NHIS.
 
Okwor said that pharmacists were ready to support the NHIS in whatever form to ensure that its goals were realised.
 
``We are looking for ways to sustain the achievements of the NHIS. We know that one of the challenges that NHIS is facing is funding.
 
``PSN is ready to partner with you so as to ensure that the healthcare sector was funded to achieve coverage of Nigerian’s health issues,” he said.
 
The PSN president said that the pharmaceutical society believed that Nigeria could borrow from developed countries on international best practices to do better.
 
He said that it was important for Nigerians to believe in the activities of the NHIS, stressing that every project had its teething period.
 
On access to drugs, Okwor said that Nigerians needed to understand that it was a fundamental human right to receive the required drugs when it was needed.
 
Responding, Sambo commended the team for its visit, saying that the scheme was collaborating with the World Bank to review its activities.
 
He said that the goal of the scheme was to ensure that every Nigerian had access to health insurance when in need of health services.
 
While noting the popular saying, ``health is wealth’’, Sambo regretted that Nigerians still found it difficult to save against health challenges.
 
He said that health insurance was one of the best ways of financing healthcare in Nigeria, adding that the programme was a common knowledge in the developed nations to save citizens from unnecessary deaths.
 
He urged Nigerians to key into the health insurance scheme to avoid unnecessary morbidity and mortality that could arise from inability to pay for health services when the need arose.
 
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria is the umbrella body of all registered pharmacists in Nigeria and was founded in 1927, making it one of the oldest professional associations in the country.