By Alaba-Olusola Oke
Dr Sunday Omotayo, Chairman of Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria in government hospitals in Ondo State, says that President Muhammadu Buhari Government was a boost to the health sector.
Omotayo, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) on Thursday in Akure, said the sector had progressed despite some challenges encountered by the administration.
“For me, I will say so far so good, we may not be there yet but we are not where we were in the health sector.
“In the last eight years, we have had emergence of specialised universities called university of medical sciences.
“For us in the health sector, it is a big plus These universities will train medical personnel thereby addressing shortage of admission space for potential medical students, ” he said.
According to him, many people wanted to study medicine but the admission space was not enough.
Omotayo explained that the medical specialised universities would create job especially for health workers.
He stated that the teaching hospitals of the newly established specialised universities would also render high standard of healthcare services to the communities.
The MDCAN Chairman said that the outgoing administration had also increased the hazard allowance of health workers.
“Before this administration, they had been paying N5,000 per month to health personnel.
“But this administration increased it to N50,000. It may not be enough but at least, it’s different from what we used to have,” he said.
Omotayo added that the Buhari government established some hospitals to address medical tourism.
He said: “This administration has attended to the primary healthcare provision fund.
“It was legislated that a percentage of money from the federal government should be set aside to fund basic healthcare.
“This is also a plus because there will be fund dedicated to primary healthcare.”
According to MDCAN Chairman , the residency training which had been clamoured for years had been passed by the National Assembly.
“ This legislation will make provision for dedicated funds for residency training.
“It is also a plus because that is one of the things that were responsible for strike in the past by resident doctors,” he said.
Omotayo described the trending brain drain in the sector as something not limited to the country and blamed it on global economic recession.
“ People will say brain drain but I want to say that this is not affecting Nigeria alone, he said. (NAN)
