The House of Representatives has said the many challenges facing the country’s health sector would soon be past.
Chairman of House Committee on Heath, Amos Magaji, said there are moves to declare an emergency in the sector with a view to reposition it to meet the needs of Nigerians.
He spoke on Wednesday at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti (FETHI), Ekiti State, when the committee visited the institution as part of its oversight functions.
Magaji, who noted that addressing the problems in the health sector required a multi-pronged approach, promised that the sector would soon bounce back when the needful is done.
Chief Medical Director of FETHI, Prof. Adekunle Ajayi, who took the committee members round the facility, listed the challenges of the health institution to include huge power costs, inadequate water supply, poor access roads, ecological challenges, uncertain manpower planning and the need to upgrade the medical facility.
The new Hispathology Building; New Accident and Emergency Ward, Assisted Reproductive Technology, 150-bedded building, Molecular Laboratory and Physiotherapy Building were some of the facilities inspected by the House Committee members
Magaji praised the management for utilising the available space and the huge expansion, saying, ‘We are impressed with what they have done with the resources given them’.
He added: “The National Assembly, going forward, will push for a state of emergency to be declared in Health because where we are now as a nation, it is not possible that health will be funded by the budget.
“We have gone round many health institutions and the problems are basically the same, lack of equipment, manpower challenges, equipment, and infrastructure is also massively inadequate”.
As part of efforts to resolve these issues, Magaji said that the committee would invite the national leadership of all health unions to a meeting, as well as relevant MDAs, over the issue of non-payment of some of the arrears, bonuses and salaries of some health workers.
“This is not the time for health workers to work without receiving their pay. We are also looking at the issue of one-on-one replacement. Immediately we get back, we are calling on all the relevant agencies to discuss on how to remove all the bottlenecks in employment or replacement in the healthcare sector”.
“We are also looking at how to expand the quotas of medical admission in universities. One of the solutions is enrolment of students in medical colleges, making the study of medicine attractive in Nigeria. If we have many young people studying medicine, even if there is japa, we will still have enough people to practice medicine in Nigeria”, he added.
