Senate yesterday passed into law the long awaited National Health Bill following the completion of its clause by clause consideration which started almost three months ago.
The bill which scaled final passage at both chambers of the sixth National Assembly but was denied assent by the presidency, was re-introduced at the seventh senate by the chairman Senate committee on Health, Senator IfeanyiOkowa has experienced serious delay before its final passage yesterday.
In his exposition of the Bill at an interactive session with senate Correspondents in Abuja, Okowa explained that the major thrust of the Bill is to regulate the healthcare industry which has witnessed several abuses in the past.
According to him, “a lot of things that we do in the health services in this nation are not regulated and this includes organ transplantation and the use of blood and blood products, plantation of tissue has not been regulated before now such that if somebody wanted to transplant kidney or carry our any other transparent, there were no regulations guiding it and if there was any fault or default the person who has done wrong could not be persecuted in the law court to conclusion.”
He noted that the Bill seeks practically to provide a basic health fund that is needed at this point in time to develop the health sector as contained in clause 11 of the Bill.
