NHIS undergoing reforms to fast track attainment of universal health coverage
There are indications that the ongoing Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the non-passage of the amended National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Act have further slowed down the uptake of health insurance packages and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the country.
In fact, The Guardian investigation revealed that more than 170 million Nigerians are still paying out-of-pocket to access medical services and out-of-pocket payments can make households and individuals incur catastrophic health expenditure and this can exacerbate the level of poverty. x
Critics say the NHIS has remained nonfunctional and the coverage rate has dropped from over 10 per cent (5.6 million Nigerians) ten years ago to just barely 1.72 per cent (one million Nigerians) today.
Ending the Diabetes-COVID Disaster
Overview of Excess, Preventable COVID Diabetes Deaths in New York City, New York State and the Nation
When Loretta Fleming, a South Bronx public housing resident with diabetes, took local self-management classes after years of failed efforts at trying to better control her diabetes, she was able to reduce her A1C (a blood sugar measure) from a near lethal 11% to 6.5%. She knew that by doing this she was slashing her risks for kidney failure, amputation and a range of other diabetes –related complications; what she didn’t know is that she was also slashing her risk for the worst outcomes -including death, ICU stays and ongoing illness -if she contracted COVID. By the time the COVID epidemic emerged, Loretta herself had become a diabetes community educator, helping hundreds of people in the area of the city which would have the city’s worst COVID infection rate -and greatest threat for people
Vanessa Obioha writes that despite failing his medicine course in the university, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tremendoc Limited, Ugochukwu Jay Chikezie is living his dream to work in the medical field with the success of his telehealth solution company
Once upon a time, a young man from Umuahia, Abia State, Ugochukwu Jay Chikezie dreamt of becoming a doctor. His parents wished he would become one too, for they noticed his proclivity to study the applied science course. Moreover, Nigerian parents take special pride in seeing their children decorated with the title ‘doctor’. It’s like a badge of honour to them.
Oxfordshire councillors will join efforts to scrutinise a new health management group. PEOPLE using Oxfordshire’s hospitals, GP surgeries and even care homes will have a voice at the table as health and care is set to be managed in a new way. A huge new organisation has been set up to manage health and care across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire which will start its job on April 1 next year. This is part of a move to combine management structures across the NHS in England into regional groups called Integrated Care Systems. To make sure that managers are doing their job properly, a group of councillors from all three areas will sit on a panel called a health overview and scrutiny committee to question health and care decision makers at least twice a year.