NPMCN fellows charge govt to improve teaching facilities at medical institutions

To ensure practitioners in the medical field receive sufficient training and exposure, new fellows of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), Lagos, have challenged the Federal Government to improve teaching facilities in the school and all affiliated institutions.
 
Speaking shortly after the 33rd convocation ceremony of the college, an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Dr. Rabiu Ayyuba, who was among the 343 newly admitted fellows informed The Guardian, that some medical institutions especially in the North lack modern medical equipment needed for 21st century training and practice.
  
He said, “Though the training at NPMCN is rigorous and excellent in quality, there is need for improvement. Government is expected to improve facilities and equipment in training institutions including affiliated general hospitals. 

“The facility we have at my centre, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital for obstetric and gynaecology training is good, but other centres in northern Nigeria are lagging behind in modern equipment. I believe this is not beyond what the present government can do.
 
For Dr. Kooffreh-Ada Mbang, funding and provision of modern equipment have continued to pose severe challenge to the advancement of medical profession in the country.

“We have doctors who are well-trained in their fields, but because of lack of equipment they are unable to attain the standard of care they are supposed to offer their patients. I believe that Nigerian doctors have what it takes to offer the best healthcare services to their patients if the sector is well funded.”
 
Meanwhile the President of the college, Prof. Rasheed Arogundade, in his opening address lamented that the perennial problem of inadequate funding has continued to hinder full attainment of the college’s mandates and infrastructural growth.
 
He said the zero capital allocation to the college since the last quarter of 2014 has halted the only construction project that was going on in the school.
 
He said, “It is indeed gratifying to report that the college is developing its infrastructure albeit very slowly. At the permanent site, only two out of the four blocks in the original master plan of the first phase of development of the college have been fully built. In order to create room to accommodate all the departments of the college, there is the pressing need to complete all the buildings in the master plan.”