As the Nigerian healthcare system experiences one of its worse times under the current dispensation, a Professor of the Department of Community Health and Primary Health Care, College of Medicine, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akin Osibogun, has charged the Federal Government to prioritise the system.
Osibogun gave the charges while speaking at the just-concluded Provider Forum, where he noted that, for the sake of the country’s future, there was the need to pay undivided attention to the healthcare sector.
The Provider Forum programme was organised by Total Health Trust (THT), with the theme -Creating Impact in Chaos.
Prof. Osibogun, in the course of his speech, was quoted to have said:
There is a need to strengthen the Health System for Improved Performance and Response.
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Prof. Osibogun, who spoke on the on a theme -Building back better: Improving healthcare delivery post-pandemic Nigeria, while advocating for a resilient health system in Nigeria, stated:
Weak health systems make it impossible to attain national health goals and are also a threat to global health security.
To prevent, Detect and Respond to biological and other threats to health, a resilient and sustainable health system is required.
A resilient health system is one that is able to withstand, or rapidly recover from, exposed shocks.
A sustainable health system is one built on local capabilities and realisable local potentials such that the community can maintain the system at all stages of its socio-economic development.
On his part, Dr. Otefe Edebi, the Medical Director of Gracehill Place Hospital, who also spoke at the forum, hammered on the resilience of the Nigerian healthcare system and the lessons post-COVID-19.
Edebi, in his submission, identified four lessons learnt from the pandemic.
According to him, there was a need for re-evaluation, innovation, and focus in the health system.
All these are coming at a time when many Nigerian doctors are jetting out of the country to practise elsewhere following the unconducive working atmosphere in Nigeria.
