- Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Services highlights poor funding, brain drain, and outdated equipment as issues in the health sector
- The government aims to collaborate with organizations like MDCAN to address these problems and improve healthcare, particularly in rural areas
Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Services, has identified poor funding, brain drain, obsolete equipment, and a lack of facilities as major issues in the country’s health sector.
The minister made the claim during his address to the 13th Biennial Delegates’ Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) in Kano yesterday.
The minister, who was represented by Prof Abdurrahman Sheshe, chief medical director of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, stated;
I recognize the fact that there are problems facing the medical sector in the country, which include poor funding, brain drain, a lack of facilities, obsolete equipment, a lack of enough workers and facilities, particularly in rural areas.
All these are part of what the current administration is working to change in order to enhance the health sector.
The situation has caused a lot of problems that have to do with maternal mortality and various others.
The government is going to work hand-in-hand with all those that are willing to contribute towards resolving these problems, especially the MDCAN, to whom my doors will always remain open for advice and suggestions, he said.
The conference’s theme was “Medical Education in Nigeria at a Crossroads: Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Education Challenges and the Way Forward.”
Pate urged medical professionals to assist the government because it cannot do it alone.
Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf opened the conference by promising to work with medical personnel and to implement policies that will benefit the grassroots.
Dr. Labaran Yusuf Abubakar, his representative and commissioner for health, expressed his support for MDCAN.
Prof Musa Muhammad, the immediate past president of the National Postgraduates Medical College, delivered a lecture titled “Challenges and Way Forward,” which emphasized the importance of doing the right thing for the sector to advance. He bemoaned the low quality of personnel produced as a result of a lack of manpower.
Dr Victor Makanjuola, president of MDCAN, described the theme as extremely important and timely earlier in his welcome address.
He stated that the exodus of consultants from the country for greener pastures is having a significant impact on medical education and clinical service delivery and that the need for open discussion and innovation in addressing these challenges cannot be overstated.