The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, disclosed this on Thursday while declaring open the 11th Annual Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Intensive and Critical Care Society of Nigeria (I-CCSN) in Abuja.
The federal government has announced plans to strengthen Nigeria’s emergency healthcare system by expanding the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) and developing a digital emergency dispatch platform to improve responses to critical illnesses.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, disclosed this on Thursday while declaring open the 11th Annual Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Intensive and Critical Care Society of Nigeria (I-CCSN) in Abuja.
The conference, themed “Sustainable Financing for Intensive Care in Public Hospitals in Nigeria,” focused on improving access to critical care and addressing financing challenges in the country’s health sector.
Mr Salako said NEMSAS, which began as a pilot project in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has now expanded to 34 states, bringing Nigeria closer to nationwide emergency medical coverage.
He also announced that the government is developing a digital emergency dispatch platform that will connect emergency callers, ambulance services and treatment centres through a single system.
According to him, the platform will facilitate real-time emergency response, patient tracking, referrals and claims management.
Mr Salako said improving critical care requires more than equipping intensive care units (ICUs), stressing the need for an integrated emergency care system.
He said such a system should link ambulance services, high-dependency units, medical oxygen systems, diagnostic services, health insurance, trained health workers, and rehabilitation services to provide timely, life-saving care.
“Critical illness does not discriminate. No Nigerian family should be forced to choose between financial ruin and access to life-saving healthcare,” he said.
The minister said the government is also expanding access to medical oxygen by installing Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants in health facilities across the country to ensure a reliable supply of the life-saving commodity.
Mr Salako said sustainable financing remains essential to improving critical care services in public hospitals.
He called for greater investment in specialist education, fellowship programmes and continuous professional development for physicians, critical care nurses, biomedical engineers and other healthcare professionals involved in emergency and intensive care.
He also urged stronger collaboration among the federal government, state governments, healthcare institutions, professional associations, development partners, and the private sector to translate conference discussions into evidence-based policies that improve financing and expand equitable access to quality intensive care services across Nigeria.
