Health Minster decries paucity of doctors

The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has decried the paucity of doctors in the country to render high level of medical services to Nigerians, saying something urgent has to be done to address the situation.

This submission by the Minister according to some medical experts “is certainly why many Nigerians including President Buhari go abroad for medical treatment, if the country has adequate personnel with up to date facilities, our president and other Nigerians will not go abroad for treatment”.

However the Minister who was silent on the issue of medical tourism during Cross River State’s organised health summit, with the theme, ‘Translating Health Policies and Plans into Action” recently, said because of the inadequate doctors, the President Buhari led federal government must see that medical services in the country improves.

He said the federal government was poised to establish Primary Health Centres in all local government areas of the country as foundation for healthcare provision, but that there are limited number of doctors to go round the whole country.

Adewole who described the summit as trail blazing and lauded Gov Ayade and his team for exhibiting political will in tackling challenges in the health sector, particularly with restoration of accreditation for School of Nursing in the state, stated that “developing the state strategic plans and translating it into action will require enormous political will and commitment. We must cultivate and sustain partnership with development partners.”

In his remarks, Ayade said his administration was on a “rescue mission to revamp and revitalise the economy” and that the AyadeCare Health scheme guarantees easy and cheap access to quality healthcare in the state.