Family doctors seek partnership with government to improve health services

The Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria, SOFPON, has offered to partner with the Federal Government to improve the management, advancement and transformation of health care delivery in Nigeria.

According to a Channel Television news report, the society made the offer on Wednesday at a press briefing to mark the 19th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the family doctors at the Federal Medical Centre Umuahia, Abia State.

“Family physicians are willing and eager to partner with government especially at the primary care level to manage the under-utilised health centres with a view to improving consumer confidence”, the national president of the group, Akin Moses, said at the briefing.

“With family physicians being at the forefront of the implementation of concepts such as community oriented primary and clinical care, patient-centred care and community based health insurance, we can expect to have some progress towards the attainment of universal health coverage,” Mr. Moses stated.

“This is because a family physician is specially trained to handle the patient better than other medical practitioners whose services are limited on the basis of age, gender and type of disease”.

He added that if the offer was accepted by government, “the present state of most of the primary health centres as treatment centres for selected illnesses would soon be a thing of the past”.