A new revelation has been made about the lack of acute shortage of medical practitioners in Nigeria State.
File photo: hospital ward
The National Medical Association (NMA) in Niger has revealed that
the ratio of doctors to patients in the state was one to 9,000, as
against one to 600 as recommended by the World Health
Organaisation(WHO).
Dr. Mustapha Yahaya, NMA Chairman in the state, made the
disclosure on Monday in Minna, when members of the association paid a
courtesy call on the House of Assembly Committee on Health.
“We have always drawn the attention of the government to the fact that doctors are inadequate in Niger.
“We have always made reference to WHO, which recommends one doctor to 600 people. Here, it is one doctor to 9,000 people” he explained.
According to him, there are currently 450 doctors in the state, with many of them already leaving “due to poor remuneration”.
He urged the state government to fully implement the National
Health Bill passed into law in 2014, saying that it would guarantee
universal health access to all.
Yahaya further advocated 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the
health sector, in line with WHO’s recommendation, so as to improve the
poor health indices in the state.
In his response, the Committee Chairman, Mr John Bahago, promised
to facilitate the establishment of a medical school in one of the
tertiary institutions in Niger, to bridge the manpower gap.
“We need more indigenous trained manpower and one way to
achieve that is to establish a faculty of medicine in any of the higher
institutions in the state.
“But before then, we will do everything possible to ensure
that the doctors in the state are well motivated to stay and work here,” he said.
Bahago tasked the association to weed out quacks from the
profession, and promised full support toward an improved working
environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment