Here’s what the health minister said on healthcare for indigents, ARV, hepatitis and National Health Act
Last week, Nigeria’s health minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole announced government’s plans to provide free healthcare services to 8 million indigent Nigerians.
According to the minister, the services will be provided between April and December 2018. He made the announcement at the end of last week’s weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council.
Vanguard reported that this latest outreach is in addition to the provision of free surgeries to 10,150 less privileged Nigerians.
“We plan to offer 10,150 surgeries to poor Nigerians. Last year alone, we succeeded in offering surgeries to 7,900 poor Nigerians.
“In addition to the 7,900 surgeries, we were also able to screen 10,000 people of the 20,000 that we planned to screen.
20,000 Nigerians to get ARV
Another major announcement that was made the health minister was plans to increase the number of Nigerians that have access to anti-retroviral services by 20,000 this year.
Other matters arising
The minister also announced the successful screening of 16,000 Nigerians for hepatitis B and C.
“Also we were able to deworm 60,000 Nigerian children,” he said.
He announced that the Nigerian government will also provide 10,000 free catarrh surgeries as well as a nationwide screening for Cervix and breast cancers, and offer antiretroviral treatments to 20,000 more Nigerians.