Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged government at all levels to prioritize better welfare packages for medical practitioners as he warned the country’s health sector may not survive much longer if doctors and other care givers continue to relocate abroad at the current pace. Obasanjo gave this charge at the 44th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) held at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The event themed “Evolving Roles of Doctors in Healthcare Management and Nation Building”, the former president represented by the FMC’s Medical Director, Prof Adewale Musa-Olomu, lamented that the present economic crisis has contributed to health practitioners seeking greener pasture outside the country.
“Resident doctors constitute the bedrock of whatever medical services any country is offering its citizens and Nigeria is not an exception.
“It is therefore very necessary for the government at all levels to ensure that there are good welfare packages for the doctors without whom it will be impossible to render any meaningful service.
“Having seen the amount of work resident doctors are offering in our hospitals, I therefore appeal that we should see to their welfare.
“The rate at which Japa syndrome is affecting our health sector is alarming, a lot of our sub specialties are now under lock and key. We can’t operate in these offices again because the specialists have left the country.”
Also at the event, the Ogun state governor, Dapo Abidoun, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, disclosed that statistics revealed that healthcare waste contributes about 30% of health challenges globally, calling for innovation through recycling.
“To be honest, our doctors need to start paying attention to the environment, because from the statistics available, healthcare waste contribute about 30% of environmental challenges across the globe”.
“So, if we don’t start doing something about our environment now, then what planet are we leaving behind for our children? I want to urge us, as we deliberate to take care of the environment, not just in our roles as medical practitioners, but as a role of environmental evangelists”.
“Some of us are found of using single-use plastic and styrofoam, we need to start using innovation by recycling. We from Africa have started innovation to make sure that we leave the African continent viable”
