According to News report from Punch,The Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria (SOFPON), Kwara State chapter, has appealed to Governor AbdulRahaman AbdulRazaq to reduce the substantial tax imposed on private medical practitioners in the state, enabling them to better contribute to the health needs of the populace.

Speaking on World Family Doctors Day in Ilorin, the doctors requested the state government’s support in logistics and addressing the healthcare needs of Kwara residents.

The Chairman, Dr Bode Ogunjemilua, emphasised that the demands of a quality healthcare system are too vast for individuals to shoulder alone. He praised AbdulRazaq’s policies in the healthcare sector, describing them as compassionate and innovative.

He quoted William Osler, a Canadian physician and one of the four founding professors of John Hopkins Hospital, the SOFPON leader said, “The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient, who has the disease.” The quotation, he said, should guide the physicians in their daily routine.

He added: “I wish to reiterate our plea to the state government and captains of industry to assist us in the treatment of the patients rather than the disease. However, it is no longer news that an effective healthcare system is costly. We, therefore, require assistance in many areas. We need a vehicle to facilitate our movement in and outside the state, a befitting secretariat building, and tax reduction for our members, among other compelling needs.

“The most important thing we are stressing through our association is better Universal Health Coverage (UHC), with primary health care as its foundation. We want this to start in Kwara. Health should not be the prize you win for climbing to the top of the pile; it should be the gift we’re all given; the gift that enables us to realise our dreams and fulfil our aspirations as those called to defend the Hippocratic Oath some years ago.”

Guest speaker at the event, Dr Anthony Joseph, who spoke on the topic, ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People: The Role of Family Physicians’, urged members of SOFPON to uphold the five principles of a total physician by being care providers, decision-makers, communicators, community leaders and managers.

The Head of Department (HOD) Accident and Emergency (A/E), General Hospital, Ilorin, warned that if nothing was urgently done to intervene in deforestation and other variables affecting the climate, “more deaths should be expected via climate change implications between 2030 and 2050.”