By Disun Amosun
In the midst of growing agitation for the establishment of more Tertiary Health Institutions in the country, especially in the North, Health Minister Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate has cautioned against duplication of efforts and resources involved in the demand, especially now that government is operating within scarce resources.
Speaking at a Public Hearing on 16 Establishment bills for one tertiary health institution or the other, the Minister said while the demand was understandable, efforts should, for now, be geared towards consolidating the technological, infrastructure and manpower of existing ones nationwide, as there were no reports of underservice in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Represented by a Director in the ministry Dr. Jimoh Olawale Salaudeen, the Minister reiterated enthusiasm for efforts geared towards ensuring growth in the Health sector.
He expressed appreciation for the House of Representatives support in deepening healthcare services, especially in training and funding in Cardiovascular research, and noted that it is not more on alert level than other noncommunicable diseases to warrant a compelling need for the establishment of a National Institute in Kano as being proposed among the 16 bills.
“The Ministry has no objection to the establishment of the proposed federal health tertiary institutions. However considerations for such demands should be based on merit, geopolitical spread, burden of the disease in the proposed location, population density as well as support from the host community and other stakeholders, with the consideration of available resources for their establishment”.
In an address of welcome on the occasion, the chairman House of Representatives Committee on Heath Institutions Rep. Amosun Gwamna Magaji identified the core of the hearing as providing guidance on the actualization of the Federal Government’s commitment to improve the health care sector through the wide distributions of Healthcare Institutions in Nigeria.
He said that as a result of the growing population, there is the need for reference hospitals closer to the people, particularly in rural and subu_$rban areas, have grown critical for ensuring success of government initiatives to improve healthcare.
According to him, tertiary health institutions in Nigeria are designed to provide tertiary healthcare services to complement primary and secondary care in the national healthcare system, adding that in order to develop and expand the country’s training institutions and ensure an equitable distribution of health manpower, the Federal Government must balance the inequality in the distribution of tertiary institutions across the country.
He argued that the mass exodus of health workers and professionals to other countries presents a significant challenge to Nigeria’s healthcare sector, saying “recently, there has been an enormous migration of doctors, Nurses and other health workers in search of “greener pastures” in other countries, leaving Nigeria’s health sector severely understaffed.
“The need to reposition the healthcare sector to meet numerous emerging challenges is crucial to its improvement. To succeed in this era, a system that is well invested on human resources and medical intelligence as the backbone of the health sector is required. The administrative appointment of capable persons based on merit in hospital management also has a role to play.
