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Medical lab scientists develop template for new health minister

By Emeka Anuforo
06 October 2015   |   2:29 am
President Muhammad Buhari has a date with history, as he moves to appoint a Minister Health, says National President of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists Nigeria, Toyosi Raheem. Raheem believes that the President could use the opportunity to resolve the unending crises in the sector by appointing a Minister of Health who would no…
President Buhari

President Buhari

President Muhammad Buhari has a date with history, as he moves to appoint a Minister Health, says National President of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists Nigeria, Toyosi Raheem.

Raheem believes that the President could use the opportunity to resolve the unending crises in the sector by appointing a Minister of Health who would no discriminate against any of the professional bodies in the sector.

In an interview with The Guardian, Raheem also highlighted other ways government could resolve the crises and rivalry in the sector.

He noted: “Non-standardized format for remunerations of various healthcare professionals is one of the reasons for incessant strikes in the health sector. Once that is resolved, that aspect would be eliminated.

“One other cause is the issue of leadership. We know that healthcare delivery is teamwork. There are more than 10 healthcare professionals in the health sector. We have the medical doctors, the medical scientists, the pharmacists, the nurses, the midwives, the optometrists, psychotherapists, radiographers, information managers; we have so many other persons who contribute their own professional best to strengthen the health system. You discover that the practise in the pats and, even currently, I that all of these have their own departments. We have the nursing services, clinical services, pharmaceutical services, medical laboratory services, and so many other services all put into one as a team.

“But most often, you see the doctors wanting to head all of them, that if you are a medical lab scientist. They want everybody to be under them while they dictate the pace. This is an area of professionalism where everybody is competent to handle their own area of jurisdiction, based on the law, the scheme of service, and based on even need for court judgements to be obeyed.”

He went on: “For instance, we discovered that the law says that medical lab services will be headed by medical laboratory scientists. Even the National Industrial Court has pronounced that medical lab science and medicine are distinct and separate, and as such, medical laboratory scientists should head their own while others head their own. But you realize that medical doctors would want everyone to be under them.

“Again, when you look at the various regulatory bodies, all professional groups have their own regulatory bodies. The Medical Laboratory Science Council will want to make sure that standard and quality of medical laboratories in this country is ensured. As such the Council periodically goes out to every healthcare facility to inspect the laboratory and ensure that those working there are qualified, license, and that the environment and instrument that they are according to standard prescribed. But you discover that when the Medical Lab Science Council of Nigerian enters any health facility to inspect, you will see the doctors resisting it, claiming that they are the only ones that can regulate healthcare practice in Nigerian.

“When the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria wants to go and inspect any health facility, to assess the level of nursing care, whether the nurses working there are qualified and competent, whether the working environment is ideal for best nursing care, the medical doctors will resist. They will say the Council should not come and assess their hospital, as if it is only the medical doctors that are working there.”

He also identified what he described as resistance to regulatory activities of various regulatory bodies to the performance of their statutory functions as one of the causes of the crises in the health sector.
He accused medical doctors of not allowing other sector bodies not to function as established, stressing that the health sector was too large for only one profession to operate alone.

He said: “Healthcare delivery is a team work, and every component of the team must be allowed to perform their work and their statutory functions, based on their law, and based on the scheme of service and based on the competencies of their various healthcare professionals. If you look at all these, you would discover that it is when you know all these that you can now eliminate the crises.

“That is why the recent committee that was called Committee of Experts, led by Yahale Ahmed would not solve the problem. Their recommendations won’t solve the problem. It would even add to the problem. There you see a component of the recommendation that is saying that medical lab scientists should work under a medical doctor. That is against the law. That is against professional autonomy. It is against the court judgement recently given by the National Industrial Court. Then they went out. The Committee went to South Africa and some other places and discovered that even the headship of hospitals is not necessarily by the medical doctors. Any competent administration that is skilled and competent to work in the healthcare setting can be the chief executive. They say it in South Africa. They saw in South Africa that the Chief Executive of the very health institutions there are not medical doctors, but seasoned administrators. Yet they came back here and decided to say that it must be a medical doctor.

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