I grew up in an environment, where I saw people struggling daily, dying of easily preventable diseases, and I knew early on that I wanted to help improve and save people’s lives. I was always struck by the inequality between urban and rural areas in terms of access to education, health, water and sanitation and a whole range of services. Where I grew up, the nearest health clinic was 10 kilometers away, and people walked long distances to access health services. As a consequence, people do not get effective treatment or indeed arrived too late to receive effective treatment, this is a common trend in developing countries especially in the rural areas.
Achieving health equity is one of the challenges of our time. The health care resources available in a given community should not be in the handle of a few, and resources should be accessible and affordable to all. I propose an approach to improving health for all that focuses on equity in the allocation of health resources. I will pursue advocacy, the implementation of pro-equity policies, working with the government and affected communities. Equity in the health system will help in decentralization of health of services into federal state, local government ward level, it will also help in improving the national health insurance scheme where people contribute to the health services of those who don’t have or cannot afford.
More on this topic next month……….