Capacity of healthcare workers in Nigeria looks set to be enhanced, as the government provided the groundwork for the signing of an MoU between the country’s National Hospital and four private institutions.
The institutions include Nile University, Cosmopolitan University, Yangongwo College of Nursing Sciences and, Concerned Medix Foundation.
Health Minister, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate said this is a proof of President Bola Tinubu led government’s commitment to expand training capacities of health workers, fill the gaps created by those who left, and sticking to maintaining standards through the Regulatory and Professional Schools Division of Hospital Services Department of the Ministry.
Nigeria has seen quite a number of its health workers travel to work in other countries where they feel the renumeration is better, a situation Prof Pate said has impacted negatively on health care service delivery in the country.
However, the Minister said the reason for this is because, Nigerian health workers are well trained but, the government has a duty to provide solutions to multitude of challenges, whether it is infrastructure, equipment or human capital development, as was quoted in a statement issued on Friday, by the Ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Alaba Balogun.
“We are very proud of them. If we weren’t training them, they wouldn’t have been attractive to other countries”, the Minister said.
“We took a progressive stance to train more so that if those who are trained leave, some will stay. And those who have gone away might come back to serve. That is the driving force behind this policy approval by President Tinubu”, the Coordinating Minister pointed out.
Prof. Pate further alluded to the pivotal state of the private sector to achieving government’s objective.
“Our health sector is a mixed system comprising public and private sectors and I am very pleased that you have joined hands with with the National Hospital to see how the capabilities of the hospital can help train more of the clinicians”, he said.
Chief Medical Director of National Hospital, Prof. Raji Mahmud, while commending President Bola Tinubu’s priority to improve the country’s healthcare system, said signing of MoU between the National Hospital and private institutions will increase healthcare workforce training exponentially.
Prof. Mahmud further pointed out that three out of the four institutions are mainly training institutions to train medical students and nurses, alongside the National Hospital, Abuja.