Janet Ogundepo
Without the Federal Government providing tax relief on imported medical equipment, the rising costs of ultrasound scans will deny many Nigerians, particularly pregnant women access to diagnostic evaluations, stakeholders have said.
They noted that the increased prices of imported equipment, driven by the devaluation of the naira, would inevitably lead to higher costs being passed on to patients.
The stakeholders projected that the current N15,000 cost of a pregnancy scan would rise by the end of the year, limiting low-income expectant mothers from undergoing the important procedure.
The stakeholders made this known in separate interviews with journalists on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Conference of the Association of Medical Ultrasound Practitioners of Nigeria, which was themed “Standard Obstetrics and Gynaecological Ultrasound Protocol.”
PUNCH Healthwise reported in June that the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, announced that President Bola Tinubu signed an executive order to implement zero Value-Added Tax and excise duties on pharmaceutical products and medical devices.
He said that removal would increase local production of healthcare products, including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, devices such as needles and syringes, biologicals, and medical textiles.
However, the order did not accommodate the exclusion of VAT and excise duties on medical equipment.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that since the decision to allow the value of the naira to be determined by the supply and demand forces in the foreign exchange market by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the prices of imported food, drugs, medical devices, and equipment have increased.
Speaking with PUNCH Healthwise, the President of the Association of Medical Ultrasound Practitioners of Nigeria, Dr Olabode Adewunmi, called on the government to subsidise the cost of medical equipment thereby creating an enabling environment for practitioners.
He noted that the cost of the ultrasound equipment was a “big problem,” emphasising that the presence of state-of-the-art equipment and expertise would facilitate correct diagnosis.
“So the major challenges are manpower and equipment. But an enabling environment by the government will help these things to come into play. If you have government subsidising equipment, in the form of some sort of financial institution for the healthcare sector, like the Agricultural Development Bank for farmers, that could help, especially in sourcing brand new equipment. I think it’s going to go a long way in helping the profession,” Adewunmi said.
He further emphasised the importance of diagnosis in treatment, stating that wrong diagnosis would increase the morbidity and mortality rate in the country.
“Wrong diagnosis is a big issue. What is the effect? The effect is people will die. I’ve had a case of someone who was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and they got in to know that it was ruptured ectopic. Now, we can’t continue in this way. If people are well trained, then our lives can be secured. You don’t know who will be the next person to go there. You want to go to a diagnostic centre and say, I want to have an ultrasound done and be given the right diagnosis.
“So, it’s important that we put a lot of emphasis on diagnosis. All over the world, we talk about evidence-based medicine. Ultrasound is evidence-based. No surgeon wants to go into a theatre without having evidence of what is wrong. So, let’s put more pressure on diagnosis and see how we can get people to breathe right, which invariably will help the doctors make the right treatment,” he said.
The AMUPN president also advocated for the establishment of clear guidelines and protocols for ultrasound practices in the country noting that this would ensure improved maternal and foetal mortality rates.
He noted that the current absence of protocols has led to incorrect diagnoses, misdiagnoses, and negligence in duties.
“So when you do protocol, at the end of the day, you find that people are not missing what they should have seen and then you improve lives,” the AMUPN president said.
Adewunmi advocated insurance policies that could cover patients’ diagnostic testing.
On his part, renowned fertility specialist and President of the Africa Reproductive Care Society, Professor Oladapo Ashiru, stated that the lack of trained personnel and the high cost of equipment were challenges affecting the sector.
He further called on the government to remove tax and excise duty on ultrasound machines.
Ashiru added, “Ultrasound machines are not cheap, they are not manufactured in this country, so they are dependent on foreign exchange. The only way the government can help is to make such instruments tax-exempt and duty-exempt.
“In the early days, when you are buying things like medical equipment, you can access foreign exchange at a better rate. But now, everybody is accessing foreign exchange at the same rate. Whether you are going to buy drugs for your people or whether you are going to use it for something else.”
The don called on the government to pay special attention to healthcare providers to ensure affordable treatment for the masses.
“Government needs to help in terms of providing special attention to health care providers by making sure that the tools that we use are affordable and we can replace them. Also, by making sure that they are duty-exempt and tax-exempt because we are providing services for the public,” the don said.
He noted the current amount for pregnant women’s ultrasound scans was about N15,000, projecting a price increase by the end of the year.
“An ultrasound scanner, GE, one of the top range, when it was bought in my centre last year, it was about N22m. Today it is N48m. Now how do you replace this? So we can replace or we can add new ones to provide service all over the country because people need it for various services.
“The next one is affordability. How do people pay for this scanning tool? Before, to do a scan for the uterus, you may pay something like N1,000 but it has now it is about N15,000. I am sure by the end of the year unless there are things that are applied, it will go beyond the reach of the ordinary people,” the don said.
The fertility expert urged sonographers to be considerate in their prices and deliver precise and accurate diagnoses to their clients.
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