‘The slaughter slabs in our hospitals’

Dear Steve Omolale
SIR: It is with a heavy heart that I write this rejoinder to you having read your opinion in The Guardian of December 12, 2024 on the topic: ‘The Slaughter Slabs in our Hospitals.’ I condole with your family for the loss of your relative and the child. This is indeed very disheartening. May God rest their souls in Jesus name.

I want you to know that yes, we are faced with myriads of challenges in the health sector from those of infrastructure to that of manpower to the challenge of power supply. The Ministry of Health is not oblivious of these numerous challenges and concerted efforts are being made to reduce the challenges to a bearable minimum.

Notable among this is the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII) under the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) aimed at harmonising all the plans of the various programmes into one plan run by one budget and with one team so that as much as possible people will not work in silos. The Government of President Bola Tinubu is very caring, sensitive, and this will manifest in the near future.

In demonstration of his love for health infrastructure, the President graciously increased the medical student’s quota of training in the medical schools to cater for the enormous number of professionals lost to the japa syndrome.

He also approved the expansion of cancer care facilities to enable six new comprehensive cancer centres come on stream by end of 2025. Mr President has also granted a waiver for the replacement of staff in federal hospitals to limit care gaps due to manpower migration. Mr President has also approved of the increase in budgetary allocation with bigger envelopes to all the MDAs and parastatals.

It is noteworthy that my principal, Dr Iziaq Salako, the Minister for State for Health and Social Welfare holds in very high esteem patients’ satisfaction and has mandated all the service providers in the ministries to ensure that every Nigerian citizen has a timely and highly efficient care as well as a resounding, memorable experience when visiting our hospitals.

We may not be able to promise that all the problems will be fixed in one go but we want you to know that with feedback from great citizens like yourself, we shall do our best to take the health sector out of the current state and make it enviable in the very near future.

We once again commiserate with your family. May the souls of the departed continue to rest in peace. Once again be assured of our best regards.
Kehinde Ololade is Special Assistant (Technical) to the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.