The Health Policy Research Group (HPRG) of College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC) and other health stakeholders have identified interventions aimed at curbing corruption in Enugu public hospitals.
The stakeholders include officials of primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals in Enugu, Civil Society Organisations,
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Ministry of Justice, media and others.
The interventions was identified during a workshop organised by HPRG titled “Co-create Interventions For Addressing Health System Inefficiencies In Government Health Facilities in Enugu”.
Some of the measures identified include adoption of good internal control system to checkmate fraud, provisions of register where health officers sign in and out to reduce absenteeism, due process in disbursement of hospital fund and employment of qualifed personnel.
Others are strict punishment for diversion of patients by doctors private hospitals, falsification of medical documents, displaying price list of drugs and services and digitalisation of hospital services.
Speaking at the workshop, the HPRG Coordinator, Prof. Obinna Onwujekwe, said the goal was to improve and strengthen the functionality and efficiency of health facilities in Enugu through innovative and context-specific approaches.
He said: “In this workshop, we are trying to develop interventions in collaboration with the important stakeholders as we already know the problems.
“We want to jointly generate solutions add to evidence and solutions we already had and develop strategic plans on how these solutions can actually be implemented.
“It a co-creating solutions and action plans for anti corruption in the health sector in Enugu State.”
He added that the group had identified so many problems from their studies, explaining that, “What we are presenting are all evidence based on the studies we have done”.
The coordinator noted that there were serious corruption issues in the health sector which cost lives.
According to him, some of the corrupt practices in the health sector include absenteeism, diversion of patients to private hospitals, informal payment, procurement, employment related corruption among others.
He explained that the project had been on for over eight years in Nigeria in which HPRG was trying to address the corruption in health sector.
“It is Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) research consortium -a multi country consortium led by The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“In Nigeria we have study sites in Enugu and Kano and other countries like Malawi and Bangladesh. It is a multi country study looking at the issue of corruption in health sector.
“If we cannot eliminate corruption, the universal healthcare coverage or any health goal cannot achieved,” he stressed.
Dr Collins Okafor, the Nkanu West Local Government Health Secretary, described the workshop as interesting and important as highlights how to save lives.
Okafor, represented by the member of the Council, Dr Onah Soromkenechukwu, also said that the workshop was intense with a lot of mental work.
He said, “Health sector corruption can be fixed through programmes like this and I commend HPRG for organising the workshop”.
Dr Ikemfuna Nnamani, a representative of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital also said the programme came at the right time when the state had a Governor who listens and ready to implement the outcome of the workshop.
“I feel so honour to be part of the programme and I call on health workers to shun corrupt practices,” Nnamani said.