The board chairman of APIN Public Health Initiatives, Dr. Ayodele Oluwole Odutolu, has pledged to save life and improve the quality of life of Nigerians.
He stated this during the 1st Annual APIN Public Health Initiatives Symposium in Abuja recently.
The theme for the symposium was: “Integrating Non-Communicable Diseases and HIV to ensure long and quality lives for People living with HIV.”
Dr Odutolu said Nigerians should focus on the person and not on the diseases as it is better to prevent untimely death.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, who was represented by Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike, said to strengthen governance, leadership and stewardship role must be through multi sectoral coordination mechanism, high level advocacy, adequate technical and budgetary provision.
He added that there is need for capacity development of healthcare workers at all levels and scaling up human resource for health at all levels.
“Strengthen and re-orient health systems to address diseases at all levels of care and contribute to the attainment of UHC through sustainable awareness and availability and accessibility of screening, diagnostic and therapeutic services,” he said.
Professor Pate states the need for implementing measures to reduce financial hardship and out-of-pocket expenditure for management of diseases by leveraging and expanding the scope of health insurance cover.
