…Public Health Experts, Faculty Hail Govt’s investments In Sector
By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The national body of the Faculty Members of Public Health and Community Medicine has praised the Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, for untiringly investing in infrastructure, payment of counterpart funds, and improved welfare of health sector workers in the state.
The Faculty, in its 2023 Faculty Day lecture of the Nigeria Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, in Ilorin, through its Chairman, Dr Chikaike Ogbonna, said that the governor had blazed the trail in his prompt attention to health issues, including the recent approval of 100 per cent CONMESS and skipping allowance for medical doctors and consultants in the state.
The theme of the lecture was: ‘Leading Outbreak Response in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital: The Excitements, Frustrations, and Lessons Learned.’
Commending the governor for honouring the Faculty with his attendance, Dr Ogbonna, however charged him to continue along that path, saying to a thunderous applause from the audience, “We sincerely thank His Excellency for his great strides and for his commitments to healthcare delivery in Kwara State.
“Your Excellency has paid all counterpart funds as well as 100 per cent CONMESS for doctors and allowances for nurses. You truly deserve to be commended for your efforts.”
The governor in his remarks commended the Faculty for their great efforts in saving humanity at every turn and called on relevant stakeholders in the health sector to strengthen mechanisms towards taming public health issues around the world.
Shortly after receiving an award from the Faculty, AbdulRazaq said, “It’s in the news that UK is having a resurgence of COVID-19. So, we must not let down our guards, because it is very important since it is a public health issue. We truly appreciate the work you are doing. In Kwara here, we were able to manage COVID-19 pandemic.
“Africa was able to manage COVID-19 than many other continents, and this is largely due to your commitment.
“The lecture today has enriched me personally as it has drawn my attention to things we may sometimes overlook in terms of budgeting and appropriation.
“The theme of today’s lecture brings to live the memory of the joint effort that was committed to rid our communities of COVID-19. What we achieved, both as a nation and specifically here, was an outstanding enabler, which gave us a practical opportunity to evaluate the health system we inherited.
“In response to our observations and findings, our administration concentrated on addressing the infrastructural gaps in my first tenure, during which we were able to fix well over 57 health care facilities, ensured payment of counterpart and commitment funds to enlist the state and initiate operationalisation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, run the ANRiN project smoothly. We also made multi-pronged malaria elimination interventions accessible to all Kwarans amongst others.”
The governor added, “Without resting on our oars, about two weeks ago, I approved the upgrade of the CONMESS salary to 100 per cent for doctors and also approved several allowances to enhance the CONHESS salary for nurses and pharmacists in the state and the local government.
“We are hopeful that addressing attrition challenges in human resources, in this way, will tremendously reverse the JAPA trend and enable us to retain more good hands and make our state attractive for more specialists to join us in providing quality health care to our people.
“In consonance with the extant definition of health, according to WHO, and the SDGs, we are equally touching the lives of all Kwarans positively in the socio-economic space, education, agriculture, and rural development, amongst others, with a view to maintaining an overall well-being.”
Speaking on the lecture’s theme, a Professor of Public Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Adedeji Onayade, identified limited resources, strained facilities, communication barriers, the rapid spread of false or misinformation, rumour, and myth mongering through the social media as some of the hurdles for executing effective response in disease outbreaks.
“Amidst these excitements and frustrations, valuable lessons are learned. Each outbreak response provided an opportunity for reflection, improvement, and building resilience for future challenges, for example, based on the experience with Ebola, active members of the COVID-19 committee were volunteers who committed to the response.
“My excitements lie in opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and the lives saved. Leading the teams, responding to affected persons, motivating workers, and applying my knowledge, expertise, little understanding of the Yoruba culture and proverbs, to devise strategies for outbreak containment and disarm distractors have been rewarding.”
The don also described disease outbreak as a security issue and called on policy makers to maximize the large pool of expertise available in the departments of community health/nedicine within the tertiary institutions during outbreak of diseases.
