Mr. Alausa said the government is focused on boosting growth in the health sector, but has no plans to commercialize its health institutions.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Tunji Alausa, has denied the report that the Nigerian government is planning to privatize the country’s university teaching hospitals. Mr. Alausa said the government is focused on boosting growth in the health sector but has no plans to commercialize its health institutions. The minister was reacting to a question by a reporter on Thursday on the sideline of an event to inaugurate a committee saddled with the responsibility of addressing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
He was reacting to the comment by the Chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Amos Magaji, who expressed the desire of the parliament to support the privatization of Nigeria’s university teaching hospitals. Recently, the lawmaker representing Zangon Kataf/Jaba Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, North-west Nigeria, suggested that the privatization of teaching hospitals could help to address some of the challenges in the health system, such as overstretched facilities, poor power supply, and acute shortage of personnel.
However, when the press approached Mr. Alausa on this, he dismissed this suggestion, even as he rhetorically asked: “Why would we do that?” The minister said the country has no plan to give public health institutions to the private sector but rather intends to pursue collaboration that would improve services provided in the health system. He said: “No, we are not privatizing any teaching hospital. Why would we privatize teaching hospitals? We are working with the private sector to see how we can collaborate to improve services in the healthcare system, but we are not privatizing our hospitals. We are not pursuing any policy on privatizing health care, there’s no campaign or conversation about that currently. Not at all.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Magaji’s suggestion was widely condemned by Nigerians, including the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who in response threatened a revolt against such a policy. It was reported that NLC spokesperson Benson Upah said the body was stoutly against the privatization of teaching hospitals. He said: “We are opposed to the privatization of tertiary health institutions. We are stoutly opposed to the privatization of public health institutions. Our reasons are simple- it will take healthcare out of the reach of the citizenry. The contribution of the private facilities to the health care service has not been spectacular. Even as regards salaries, public hospitals pay better than private institutions.”
