By Ajibola Olaide, JKNewsMedia Reporter
PATIENT NUMBERS at Lagos State’s public hospitals have doubled over the past six months, placing healthcare workers under growing pressure as rising treatment costs drive more residents away from private facilities.
JKNewsMedia.com reports that the Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, disclosed the increase during an interview monitored on a television on Friday, where he said that outpatient patronage had surged across facilities including the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikorodu and Lagos Island.
“In the last six months, our outpatient patronage has doubled in our public health facilities, LASUTH in Ikorodu and Lagos Island,” Abayomi said.
He said the scale of the increase had become difficult for healthcare workers to absorb, noting that he had seen thousands of patients arriving at facilities each day.
“I’ve seen thousands of patients a day. Now, you can’t imagine that kind of patronage in a private hospital,” he said.
Abayomi attributed part of the shift to the rising cost of healthcare, which he said was making private medical services increasingly unaffordable for residents.
“While the cost of care is going up, the ability to buy that care is relatively stagnant,” he said.
The commissioner said the situation was pushing some residents from private hospitals into public facilities, while others were moving from the public system into the informal healthcare sector.
“So, the public are shifting from the private sector to the public sector and from the public sector to the informal sector, where they can walk into a pharmacist or stop the hawker on the road and tell them, I have a headache or I have a fever, and they get access to medication without going through the orthodox system,” he said.
The increased patient load has compounded pressure on doctors and other healthcare professionals already affected by the migration of medical workers abroad.
“Our doctors and our healthcare professionals are under a lot of stress. You can imagine with the brain drain, with this influx of patients,” Abayomi said.
He illustrated the strain on medical personnel by comparing their workload with extended working hours in other professions.
“You know, if you work from 8 till 12, I don’t know what your time on stage is, but in the medical facility, can you imagine if they asked you to work from 6 in the morning to tomorrow 6 in the morning? It would be crazy,” he said.
Against this backdrop, Lagos is moving towards enforcing compulsory health insurance as part of efforts to strengthen healthcare financing.
Abayomi said the state had domesticated the National Health Insurance Authority Act through an executive order issued in July 2024, making health insurance compulsory for people living and working in Lagos.
“Now we’re moving into enforcement. So very soon, it’s just like if you have a car. You need three things. You need a licence, you need an MOT, and you need insurance. If you don’t have it, somewhere along the line, someone will enforce it,” he said.
He said the state was restructuring its health insurance system while increasing public awareness and educating residents about the need for insurance.
“We’re restructuring. We’re doing a lot of enforcement. We’re doing a lot of public health awareness. We’re doing a lot of educating the public around the need for insurance,” he said.
JKNewsMedia.com also reports that the commissioner said the government wanted every resident to have access to a basic social health insurance package, with private insurance incorporated into the wider system.
“Everybody should have at least a social health insurance basic minimum service of package cover. And then in the private sector, we’re incorporating them into that narrative so that if you have private insurance, you at least have the basic minimum package,” he said.
“And that we’ve now restructured the tiers so that there is a cleaner operation of insurance in the state.”
Abayomi said improved healthcare financing could also help tackle the migration of health professionals by increasing the flow of money into the sector and strengthening the ability of healthcare providers to attract and retain workers.
“It all boils down to healthcare financing. It boils down to demand financing, the ability to finance the purchase of your care,” he said.
He said health insurance could spread healthcare costs among residents, reduce risks and ease the financial burden on government while allowing the private sector to play a greater role.
“Health insurance does many things. It reduces the risk. It causes a cross-subsidy and social solidarity. It takes a lot of the burden away from government so that the private sector can flourish in a health system,” he said.
The commissioner said increasing residents’ purchasing power for healthcare could also help slow the loss of medical professionals.
“Now when that happens, it will start to slow down brain drain because brain drain is an economic narrative,” he said.
“If we fix the demand-side financing, then funds will flow. If the public, if the business people in Lagos suddenly see that Lagotians have purchasing power for health care, they will fix the supply-side,” he added.
Abayomi also defended the state’s investment in public healthcare, saying government heavily subsidises services delivered through its hospitals.
“The public health service is extremely subsidised. We build the hospitals. We pay 20,000 staff. We’re the biggest ministry in Lagos state government. We repair facilities. We buy equipment. We’re constantly paying for training. We’re paying for administration, overheads, power,” he said.
He said the level of subsidy meant that charges at public hospitals were generally less than half the cost of comparable services in private facilities.
“So they generally charge a range of something less than 50% of what private sector charges. Health is doing actually quite well,” he said.
On budget implementation, Abayomi said the health sector had achieved more than 90%.
“We’re above 90 percent,” he said.
In addition, JKNewsMedia.com also reports that the commissioner also addressed concerns about payment procedures and allegations that some patients were required to make cash payments before receiving treatment.
He said the state had outsourced payment gateways to private operators in an effort to separate payment administration from clinical activities.
The commissioner further addressed concerns about payment procedures and allegations that some patients were required to make cash payments before receiving treatment.
He said the state had outsourced payment gateways to private operators across its facilities to keep payment administration separate from clinical activities, with payment collectors responsible for charges incurred by patients.
Abayomi said several companies operate the different payment gateways across the state’s facilities.
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