By Cosmas Omegoh, Lagos
Officials of pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and IQVIA, days ago, rounded off their inaugural Accra Payer Summit in Ghana where they sealed a partnership with Nigerian and Ghanaian health officials with the aim of improving patients’ access to healthcare in both countries and the West African sub region.
In attendance at the event were representatives from Nigeria and Ghana’s National Health Insurance authorities and Ministries of Health, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, C/CAN, mPharma, private health insurance experts, hospital representatives and Nigerian and Ghanaian representatives from IQVIA and Pfizer.
Our correspondent learnt that the summit facilitated dialogue between stakeholders on how health economics and public-private partnerships were being applied in Ghana and Nigeria to improve access. The discussions set the stage for continued collaboration through knowledge exchange between both countries.
The event was followed by a visit to the Ghana’s Ministry of Health the next day for the “Support to Evidence-informed Priority Setting in Ghana (StEPS-Gh),” project where Ghana’s Essential Health Services Package was officially launched.
At the meeting, Olayinka Subair, Cluster Lead for West Africa, Pfizer, noted that “to identify the gaps in the patient journey and address them, we partner governments across West Africa as well as global health organizations in the health space. We are driving health equity through affordability programmes for those who cannot afford them, such as subscription models and flexible payment options. We have already made enormous progress towards putting affordability at the heart of our business as decades of experience working across West Africa have built our strong understanding of patients’ needs and know that barriers to access aren’t just about the price of treatments but occur throughout the patient journey.”
On his part, Naim Hage, IQVIA Director, East Africa & English-speaking West Africa observed that “IQVIA as an organization that is inspired to advance health outcomes through collaboration, with the hope of overcoming some of the biggest challenges facing global health, is passionate about continuously pushing to do more to advance public health efforts and improve health for all.
“This is driving our collaboration with Pfizer, as we are harnessing our resources and expertise to identify, understand, and address unmet public-health needs through this knowledge exchange on Payer initiatives in Ghana and Nigeria to improve patients’ access to cost-effective care.”
Alhaji Hafiz Adam, Chief Director of NHIA Ghana added: “We are proud of this bold partnership, and it is my hope that, through this collaboration, we will help ease the pain and improve the lives of NHIA enrollees in our country. We are committed to be a model of sustainable, progressive and equitable social health insurance scheme in Africa and beyond as we provide financial risk protection against the cost of quality basic health care for all residents in Ghana, and to delight our subscribers and stakeholders with an enthusiastic, motivated and empathetic professionalism with all stakeholders.”
Prof. Mohammed Sambo, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NHIA, added that “National Health Insurance Authority is well positioned to accelerate access with the recent signing of the NHIA act which has expanded coverage for 83 million vulnerable Nigerians. The agency will continue to bring affordable and quality healthcare to all Nigerians, with the implementation of its ten-year strategic plan which is presently on course.”
He noted that “as a health insurance regulator, we are glad to work with Pfizer, the global drug giant to assiduously achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria.”
Ghana’s National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) was established under the National Health Insurance Act 2003, Act 650, to secure the implementation of a national health insurance policy that ensures access to basic healthcare services to all residents for the purposes of implementing, operating and managing the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Similarly, Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) provides social health insurance in Nigeria where health care services of contributors are paid from the common pool of funds contributed by the participants of the scheme.