Expert proffers solutions to health challenges

He told Daily Trust in his office in Umuahia that a situation in which the sector is not centrally controlled or monitored has created more problem than could be solved saying the inconsistency of policy between the state and the federal government was responsible for the problem.According to the Ophthalmologist, another issue that needs to […]

He told Daily Trust in his office in Umuahia that a situation in which the sector is not centrally controlled or monitored has created more problem than could be solved saying the inconsistency of policy between the state and the federal government was responsible for the problem.
According to the Ophthalmologist, another issue that needs to be addressed is the provision of gadgets and training for the personnel.
He said there were consultants who are willing to excel but lack the requisite training and equipment.
 The MD said the FMC Umuahia adopted the strategy of training and equipping the personnel through the programme known as Seek an Area for Excellence, to change the public perception of the hospital and to make it a world class medical facility.
“Look at our doctors in the UK and in the US, they are doing perfectly well. So what needs to be done is to do an audit, a NEEDS assessment of what is required in order to bring us to a certain baseline. And then find out how much it will require to bring us to that level, then vote fund towards bringing us all to that baseline.”
He noted that though the GDP of Nigeria is a little lower that that of Sweden,  but the level of health care in that country is miles away from that of Nigeria.
He also lamented the level of financial and material resources lost to incessant strikes in the sector saying that the disharmony was because people did not appreciate their roles.  “The doctors or the optometrists would want to be an ophthalmologists, the bone setters , though not in the hospitals, but still in health, because even those ones in the health care want to behave like a doctor, the orthopedic surgeon.”