Health experts have warned doctors against conceding to proposal to “pilot”, instead of fully implementing, the 2014 National Health Act, calling it “illegal”.
It came after the World Bank offered the Federal Ministry of Health $5 million, with another $1m from Bill Gates, to “pilot” the NHA in three states.
Dr Ben Anyene, chairman of the Health Sector Reform Coalition, which pushed for the NHA, called the “piloting” a proposal to “pump money into a dark hole.
“It is illegal; it is not supported by the law and the National Health Act is for all the states of the country,” he said in a keynote address at the annual general meeting of the FCT chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association in Abuja.
“We must not relent in making sure it is implemented fully.
“I make bold to say that without the full implementation of the 2014 NHA, Nigeria’s health sector and services will remain in the doldrums,” he said.
The association has made the country’s negative health indices a point of discourse, citing a long history of sub-optimal growth health outcomes, continued rivalry among health workers and shortage of health human resources.
