The Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals, NUAHP, has again restated its stand over the nagging issues affecting the health sector, blaming it on poor leadership provided by medical doctors.
DAILY POST reports that the group had earlier called on President Muhammadu Buhari to look its way while appointing minister of health, as well as Medical Directors of health institutions.
But this did not go down well with the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, which said members of the NUAHP should focus on providing support services in the health sector.
The NUAHP has now fired back, maintaining that the medical doctors had not fared well in providing leadership within the health sector.
This was part of a press statement issued by Comrade Ohaekweiro Edwin Chukwuemeka, the National Public Relations Officer of the NUAHP.
He said it was quite regrettable that “young professionals who are suppose to be trending with global best practice are still allowing professional neo-colonialism to limit their horizon, believing that only Medical Doctors can lead the health sector, in a generation where Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a microbiologist who later became his country’s Health Minister and now the Director General of World Health Organization is doing wonders in WHO.
“Most unfortunately, the leader of the youngest Medical professional group believes that pharmacists, physiotherapists, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Radiographers, Dietitians, Optometrists, etc render support services.”
“If so, what are the people in the laundry and security department rendering?” He queried, adding that it was “an attempt to mislead the public by telling them that a Medical Laboratory Scientist renders support services, meanwhile, the National President of NARD, Dr. Olusegun Olaopa claims that they do extra six years after graduating from Medicine to specialize in Laboratory Medicine.”
“Are you spending extra six years after graduating from Medicine to learn support services? Your guess is as good as mine.
“We should learn to call a spade by its name. The bane of the problem in the health sector is leadership. Everything rises and falls on the foot of leadership and if we get leadership correct, every other thing will be auto correctional.”
While outlining certain indices to show leadership failure on the part of the medical doctors, he said “during the Buhari-Idiagbo regime, WHO ranked Nigeria’s health system 54th out of 191 countries of the world. It was the 1985 coup against Buhari-Idiagbo government that brought Nigeria health system to where it is till this moment.
“During those years, hospital governors were in charge of hospitals as CEOs. These are people who studied hospital management, health administration, health economics, health policy and possess the bias and rudiments of managing hospitals and health industries.
“Those days, people do man their area of professionalism. There was division of labor and specialization. In those days, there was no diverting of patients to private hospitals by the same professional that was supposed to treat the patient in the public hospital.
“Their was dedication to duty, professionals in all areas of Medical practice were given adequate on the job training and retraining, locally and internationally, as a way of ensuring that the services rendered in Nigeria is comparable to the services rendered in best hospitals around the world.
“All these frameworks for sustaining Quality and standard in the health sector were ousted with the ousting of the Buhari-Idiagbo regime in 1985, through the promulgation of Decree 10 of 1985 that has bedeviled the health sector till now.”
He stressed that “we cannot continue to do the same thing the same way and be expecting new results.
“For some decades now, only a particular professional in the health sector have been telling the story of the sector in the Federal Executive Council as Hon. Ministers of Health.
“The Presidency needs to balance the reportage to enable government see truly what the issues are, and the best and most potent way of balancing such reportage is to appoint the two health ministers from the other health Professionals aside Medical Doctors.
“This will be the only right step in the right direction; the paradigm shift needed to return the health sector to its years of glory.
“One thing Nigerians expect from Mr. President is to, at least, return Nigeria to its years of WHO ranking as one of the best 54th in the world.
“We call on Nigerians and the leadership of NARD to join hands with NUAHP in creating a health sector that can guarantee right to life to the least Nigerian in the remotest part of Nigeria.”
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