One of the numerous challenges facing Nigeria’s health sector which has led to industrial action by doctors in federal government established hospitals can be traced to under funding of the sector.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora on Thursday in Abuja during a meeting of state commissioners of health and federal ministries, departments and agencies as well as development partners.
According to the junior minister, putting in place world class infrastructure, provision of equipment for medical diagnosis employment of manpower, all these he said can be achieved when there is adequate funding for the sector.
READ ALSO: Again, resident doctors to embark on an indefinite strike Monday
“Basically, it has to do with the need for us to increase funding to the health sector because when you look at the challenges in the health sector, the basic underlying factor is funding,” he said.
“Whether you are talking of health infrastructure, equipment in the hospitals, human resources for health, whichever level you are talking about these issues, the underlying factor is funding.
“Even if you have the appropriate and adequate number of human resources in healthcare sector, you need to take care of emoluments, incentives and other things and you need funding. That is why we need to find ways of increasing funding in the health sector,” he added.
He made an appeal to the resident doctors on strike, asking them to return to work while adding that in the civil service, there is no such thing as a “quick fix”.
He added, “I am not saying some of these issues raised are not genuine or legitimate but we are saying that at this point in time, this is a period of pandemic.
“Even when you have boxers in the ring, when opponent is down, if you go ahead to hit the opponent, that’s unacceptable. I am saying that this is a period when almost the whole world is on its knees. This not the time to now start to box the opponent. That’s the point that has been made.
“There are no issues and I said it again in another analogy like in a war situation, you will come back to round table. My approach from day one is that let us dialogue over these things.
“The second thing is that you need to know the system in which you operate. The way the system in civil service generally is that you don’t have quick fix. You have processes and procedures that you need to go through to get things done and this is what is needed to be taken on board.”
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