…Tasks Health Institutions to strengthen research and innovation
…Pledges also to double enrolment rate of doctors and dentist from 5,000 to 10,000
FRI, OCT 27 2023-theGBJournal|The Hon. Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa capped his visit to the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) recently with assurance to fix the issue of inadequate funding of the country’s Health Institutions.
”The issue of inadequate funding would be addressed to further enhance the capacity of the institute,” the Minister said.
He promised to ensure that the institute receives substantial budget to tackle critical areas.
He went further to advise that NIMR source for funds from international research agencies and grant agencies to improve on research, noting that he is determined to resuscitate research infrastructure in Nigeria.
Dr. Alausa was on an oversight visit to some Federal Government Health Institutions in Lagos to assess the state of their facilities, see what they are doing well, know their challenges and how better these institutions can be supported to ensure better healthcare outcomes for the citizenry.
His first port of call was to the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), where he stated that research and innovation is one of the key priority area that this administration will be focusing on, owing to the fact that Mr. President is determined to fix the health care system.
He charged the Director General NIRM, Prof. Babatunde Salako and his team on the need to function effectively and diligently to strengthen research in the country.
“To strengthen our healthcare system, we have to strengthen research, if we strengthen research we will innovate, any country that does not innovate remains undeveloped”.
Addressing the Management of the Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital (FNPH) Yaba, led by the Medical Director, Dr. Olugbenga Owoeye, Dr. Alausa decried the increasing rate of the menace of substance abuse and reiterated government’s commitment in tackling drug abuse and strengthening mental health services.
“Substance abuse is a huge problem in Nigeria, we need to focus more attention on substance abuse issues, awareness, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and I am glad FNPH Yaba is taking a leading role here”.
He promised to look into some of the challenges highlighted by the FNPH boss, especially the issue of human resource for health, which the Minister said is a global crisis, and assured the institution of government’s intervention in the enrolment of health workers especially doctors and nurses and beckoned on Nigerians to be patient because this government is committed to fixing the health system in the shortest period.
“I have meet with the Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and in the next academic year we will double the enrolment rate of doctors and dentist from 5,000 to 10,000.
I also had a meeting with the Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, they have done some good things in the past 2 to 3 years, it started with about 6,000 nurses graduating annually, and then it got to a point that we were graduating about 23,000 but that’s still small for the kind of population that we have.
I have mandated him to put a plan together in the next 12 to 24 months to increase our production from about 50,000 to 80,000 nurses annually.”
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