Medical practitioners call for halt on multiple taxes on private hospitals

Medical practitioners on Wednesday called on government at all levels to stop all forms of multiple taxation on private hospitals in the country.

Dr Frank Odafen, National President, Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), made the call at the 2017 Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the association in Lagos.

The medical doctors said that curtailing multiple taxation on private hospitals would help lift the structural and functional development of private health care facilities in the country.

“Private medical practice is more of a social rather than a commercial business venture.

“It is certainly not an overstatement to continue to re-echo the unassailable statistical fact that our members cater for over 70 per cent of the health care needs of the state.

“Government also need to allocate funds for training and capacity enhancement of our members who significantly contribute to the gross domestic products in the country.

“Creating hazard insurance for all private medical practitioners is also very important.

“This is because private medical practitioners are very reliable, efficient and readily available field commanders during peace time and medical emergencies,” Odafen said.

The association commended the Lagos State Government for providing universal health coverage by enacting the law that made health insurance compulsory for workers.

“This will in no small measure ignite a positive change in the health seeking behavior of the people.

“It will also scale up the desirable and cheering trend of reversing the poor health indices of maternal, infant and under-fives mortality rates as well as improving life expectancy in Nigeria,” Odafen said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference was themed – Identifying the Time Bomb:Reward of Westernisation.

READ: Association appeals to govt. over nonpayment of marketers

Earlier, Dr Tunji Akintade, AGPMPN Lagos State Chapter Chairman, urged the government to invest more on private medical practitioners being major players in health service delivery.

“Most of the private practitioners are being financed and supported by their spouses or friends or folks from other professions.

“The theme was chosen based on the prevalence and the rising cause of sudden deaths from related diseases among medical practitioners.

“The disease is no respecter of career, age or sex and that is why government should support medical practitioners both in private and public sector by providing manpower, availability of diagnostic tools and other management options.

“Private practitioners started their health facilities with nothing but we equally generate lots of funds to the government purse from taxes, registration and so on,” he said.(