By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Federal Government has taken another step in strengthening the Nigerian healthcare sector as the National Hospital and four private institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding,MoU, to upscale the capacity of healthcare workers.
These Institutions are the Nile University, Cosmopolitan University, Yangongwo College of Nursing Sciences, and Concerned Medix Foundation.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, the Coordinating Minister of Health & Social Welfare Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate stated that the signing of the MoU with the National Hospital, Abuja; aligns with the policy of the present administration to expand training capacities.
Prof. Pate stated that capacity building in the healthcare sector for workers is in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to expand training of health workers, fill the gaps created by those who left and, sticking to maintaining standards through the Regulatory and Professional Schools Division of Hospital Services Department of the Ministry.
The minister emphasized that the Government has a duty to provide solutions to a multitude of challenges, whether in the areas of infrastructure, equipment, or human capital development, adding such training for Nigerian health workers has made them attractive to other countries.
” Thankfully, because they are well-trained, and we are very proud of them. If we weren’t training them, they wouldn’t have been attractive to other countries.”
“Unfortunately, that has implications on the service delivery at home. So as a government, we took a progressive stance to say, look, let’s train more.”
“So that even if those who are trained leave, some will stay. And even those who have gone away might come back to serve. And, that is the driving force behind this policy approval by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”, the Coordinating Minister pointed out .
Prof. Pate highlighted the critical importance of the private sector to achieving the government’s objective, saying, our health sector is a mixed system comprising public and private sectors.
“So, the private sector has a space, and I am very pleased that you have joined hands with the National Hospital to be able to really see how the capabilities of the hospital can help you train more of the clinicians.”
Speaking, the Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Prof. Raji Mahmud, commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s priority attention to improving the healthcare system.
The collaboration and signing of MoU between the National Hospital Abuja and private institutions, he affirmed, will increase healthcare workforce training exponentially.
Prof. Mahmud further pointed out that three out of the four institutions are mainly training institutions to train medical students and nurses alongside the National Hospital, Abuja.
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