The National Health Policy in Nigeria

A national health policy is not the same as a national medical policy. In fact, a national medical policy is just one of the variables that make up a national health policy.

National health policies strive to create conditions which ensure good health for the entire population. Thus it ought to take into cognizance the following:

1. political, economic, social and cultural factors which impact or have the potential to impact on health care;
2. prevalent individual behavior and lifestyles; and
3. socializing and empowering determinants which link (1) and (2) above together.

We therefore note that the state [here represented by its public institutions (as in (1) above)] and the citizens [as in (2) above] both have critical roles to play and therefore are responsible in achieving and maintaining the goals and objectives of any national health policy.

“Socializing and empowering intervention [as in (3) above] establish the relationship between the individual and the collective responsibilities for creating the conditions to ensure good health“{see reference 3 below; italics mine}; meaning that individuals are mobilized to be involved in a collective effort to strengthen public institutions, thereby ensuring good health.

The goal of the National Health Policy in Nigeria is to bring about a comprehensive health care system, based on primary health care which is: promotive, protective, preventive, restorative and rehabilitative to every citizen of Nigeria within the available resources so that individuals and communities are assured of productivity, social well-being and enjoyable quality of life.

The health services, based on primary health care, include among other things:

• education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them;
• promotion of food supply and proper nutrition;
• material and child care, including family planning;
• immunization against the major infectious diseases;
• prevention and control of locally endemic and epidemic diseases; and
• provision of essential drugs and supplies.

There is a three-tier system of health care in Nigeria, namely Primary Health Care, Secondary Health Care, and Tertiary Health Care as described below.

The Primary Health Care
Provision of health care at this level is largely the responsibility of Local Governments with the support of state ministries of health but within the overall national health policy. Private medical practitioners also provide health care at this level.

Secondary Health Care
This level provides specialized services to patients referred from the primary health care level through out-patient and in-patient services of hospitals for general medical, surgical, pediatric patients and community health services.

Secondary health care is available at the district, divisional and zonal levels of the states. Adequate supportive services such as laboratory, diagnostic, blood bank, rehabilitation and physiotherapy are also provided.

Tertiary Health Care
This level consists of highly specialized services provided by teaching hospitals and other specialist hospitals which provide care for specific diseases such as orthopedic, eye, psychiatric, maternity and pediatric cases. Care is taken to ensure an even distribution of these hospitals.

Also, appropriate support services are incorporated into the development of these tertiary facilities to provide effective referral services. Similarly, selected centers are encouraged to develop special expertise in modern technology to serve as a resource for evaluating and adapting these new developments in the context of local needs and opportunities.

To further advance the overall national health policy, the Federal Government also works closely with voluntary agencies, private practitioners and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs') to ensure that the services provided by these other agencies are in line with those of government.

References

1. Official Portal of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: National Health Policy in Nigeria;
   
2. WHO: Health Systems Policies and Service Delivery in Nigeria;
   
3. What is a national health policy?: Prof Navarro V. (2007) -pdf version; also published in International Journal of Health Services, 37(1), 1-14