Chairman of the Lagos Medical Guild, Dr Babajide Saheed on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency towards revitalising the health sector and warned that Nigeria may start importing doctors if this was not done.
NAN reports that Saheed at a media briefing in Lagos said that 59 years after Nigeria’s independence, its health sector had deteriorated in healthcare delivery, resulting in medical tourism. He said that having a functional Primary Healthcare (PHC) system in the country was an effective way of addressing the nation’s health sector challenges.
“We should follow it up with an effective secondary and tertiary care, the tertiary care will take care of medical tourism. Each region in the country should have hospitals for specialisation – like pediatric, cardiology – and we will not need to move out of the country,”
He urged that all stakeholders should agree on collective and unified common agenda that would deliver efficient, affordable and accessible healthcare services in the country. Dr Oluwajimi Sodipo, Vice-Chairman of the guild, said that PHC system should not become redundant in the country.
He said that the Federal Government had funds for PHCs and that such funds should be made more accessible and said that local governments should take PHCs as a priority, especially with their attainment of autonomy. He also called for incentives that would discourage brain-drain among health workers.
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