Unhealthy rivalry, cause of under- development in health – MDCAN

The MDCAN President, Dr Steven Oluwole, who made this known in a statement said that such rivalry is what the next minister of health must have the ability to resolve if the country is to witness some improvement in our health indices.“The unhealthy rivalry and quests for ascendancy by multitude of professional groups in the […]

The MDCAN President, Dr Steven Oluwole, who made this known in a statement said that such rivalry is what the next minister of health must have the ability to resolve if the country is to witness some improvement in our health indices.
“The unhealthy rivalry and quests for ascendancy by multitude of professional groups in the health team have eroded and fractionalised a system that should work in harmony. The primary functions of the health team is now secondary to who controls or heads departments, who takes custody of equipments and other needless ventures,” Oluwole stressed.
Drawing out the criteria that the next minister of health must possess Oluwole advised President Goodluck Jonathan to “ignore the cacophony of self-serving calls to make political rather than professional judgment in the appointment of the next Minister of Health.”
He suggested that:“But should the Minister of Health be merely a medical doctor? No! He must minimally possess basic degree in medicine and surgery; Postgraduate qualification, not necessarily in public health; skills in public and international health; evidence of administration and leadership skills and at the personal level, he must not be ethnocentric towards the medical profession, but able to lead the health team dispassionately.”
While reiterating the need for a Surgeon General in the country, the MDCAN President said: “The position of the MDCAN is that appointments to leadership positions in the health team should not be politicized to please any group, but must be competency based to achieve clearly stated objectives.
“Had the Minister of Health been incompetent to understand basic public health processes, the situation would have been different. The country will be saved enormous resources that would have been wasted on committees, monitoring groups, and other irrelevant agencies that were not needed to control the Ebola disease epidemic.”