The Minister of State for Health, Dr Iziaq Salako, said on Friday that President Bola Tinubu remains committed to providing adequate and qualitative healthcare delivery for all Nigerians.
The minister disclosed that part of the Federal Government’s plan to tackle the challenge of brain drain in the health sector is to recruit more health professionals to aid qualitative healthcare delivery to Nigerians.
Salako also said that the government is engaging with Nigerian health workers abroad to leverage their expertise and rich exposure to improve the health sector development in the country.
The minister disclosed this on Friday during his tour of the FG health facilities in Ogun State.
During the tour, the minister was at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta as well as the Federal Medical Centre, Idi Aba, Abeokuta among others.
Addressing a town hall meeting at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Salako disclosed that the FG is “harvesting” the contributions of Nigerian doctors in the UK, US, and Ireland amongst others to support the country’s healthcare system.
He noted that to mitigate the japa syndrome, the government is expanding its capacity to train more health workers and has been given the green light by Tinubu to recruit more health workers to address the shortage of manpower in the health sector.
“We are expanding our capacity to train health workers, we are also harvesting the Nigerian health workers in the diaspora – we are having a robust diasporan engagement with Nigerian health workers in the UK, US, and Ireland, they may not be physically present but we can still harvest their contributions to the health sector in Nigeria.
“Mr President has given us a waiver to recruit more health workers than any other sector. These are the mechanisms we are putting in place to make sure that we address the challenges in the health sector”, Salako stated.
Salako also appealed to the state government to domesticate the Mental Health Act at the state level to expand access to mental health care for the residents of the state.
Speaking with the journalists, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, said that the state will domesticate the Mental Health Act, adding that it is part of the commitment of the state to the people.
Coker stated, “We are going to domesticate the act because it’s one of our commitments to the people. With the pressure of society, more people suffer from mental health challenges. It is our job to ensure that our citizens are kept safe.
“Collaboration with the federal government is continuous daily. We collaborate on the primary health level. We have facilities that the federal government is helping us to upgrade. We will continue to partner with the federal government in every area possible to serve the good people of our dear state”.
Earlier in his address, the Provost and Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Paul Agboola, disclosed that the hospital is ready to partner with the state government to domesticate the Mental Health Act.
“It’s quite a great joy for us that the Minister is visiting the hospital. We are looking for collaboration from the Ministry of Health on the implementation of the Mental Health Act.
“We want to collaborate with the state government to domesticate the Mental Health Act in the state. I have spoken with the Commissioner for Health and she is ready for the domestication”, Agboola stated.
