In a move to make healthcare more affordable, the Federal Government has approved a new policy called Medipool, aimed at reducing the cost of medicines and other essential medical consumables across Nigeria.
The announcement followed the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held on Monday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, chaired by President Bola Tinubu.
According to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, Medipool will function as a group purchasing organization. Its core objective is to leverage collective buying power to negotiate competitive prices and ensure the efficient supply of vital drugs and healthcare products throughout the country.
“Today, council approved Medipool; it’s a group purchasing organisation for competitive pricing and to be supplier of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria, through the Federal Government’s intervention, the basic health care provision fund, but also eventually outside that, through federal tertiary hospitals, so that as a buyer, we can negotiate lower prices.
“So, it’s using the monopsony power of the government as a large buyer of those commodities, negotiate lower prices and then channel those commodities,” he said.
Speaking further, the minister explained, “And the scope includes, but it’s not limited to procurement planning, distribution monitoring, supply chain, logistics management, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring that local manufacturers are supported, and import substitution and the financial management and payment systems, as well as capacity building and training and contingency planning to ensure steady availability of essential drugs that are the quality that Nigerians can benefit and at a lower cost through, a public private partnership.”
He noted that the Medipool model was benchmarked against similar initiatives in countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia.
He emphasised that the administration aims to support local manufacturing, promote import substitution, and ensure Nigerians have access to high-quality, affordable medicines.
FEC also awarded a N2.3 billion contract for the procurement of a state-of-the-art cardiac catheterisation machine for Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto.
This, the minister explained, was essentially to help the university hospital provide diagnosis and treatment services for heart and blood vessel problems, heart attacks, and irregular heart rates.
“The university hospital in Sokoto will now have this capability, which will serve the population in Sokoto State, the North West geopolitical zone of our country, and indeed the country. It will save lives, but also contribute towards reversing outbound medical tourism, because Nigerians will be able to access services that they were not able to,” he added.
What you should know
The Medipool policy is designed to tackle high drug prices by enabling bulk purchasing and centralized distribution of essential medical supplies, potentially improving affordability and access nationwide.
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