Medical director seeks needs assessment audit of health sector

THE Medical Director of the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Umuahia, Dr Abali Chuku, has called for Needs assessment Audit of the health sector that would bring it to a certain baseline.

      Chukju also said for Nigeria to effectively contain the numerous challenges in the health sector, the stakeholders should undertake what he called a systemic re-evaluation and re strategizing of needs.

    Chuku in a chat with journalists faulted a situation where the health sector is not centrally controlled or monitored. He said not doing so has created more problem than solution citing that policy inconsistency between states and the federal government was partly responsible for the problem.

     The medical director said the health sector should have regulating agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

     Chuku, however, said that although there are regulatory laws, their implementation and enforcement have not been very effective.

   Another issue he put forward to be addressed, is training and re training of medical personnel and provision of necessary gadgets and working tools to them. Chuku said the medical personnel that are desirous to excel lack the requisite training and equipment.

      Chuku, who is also a consultant ophthalmologist, said FMC Umuahia has adopted a strategy for personnel training and equipping through a programme tagged “Seek an Area for Excellence.” He said the programme was aimed at changing the public perception of the hospital and making it a world-class medical facility.

   He said that when it is considered that Nigerian doctors in the United Kingdom and the United States are creditably doing very well, it becomes imperative to do a Needs Assessment Audit, which would enable the authorities know how much it would require to attain that level and then channel the necessary fund to advance to that baseline level.

   On the frequent strikes in the sector which he decried the financial and material losses including human lives there from, he attributed it partially to disharmony resulting from people not appreciating their specific roles adding that “Nigeria can get it right if the right people are put in the right places.”