By  Kemi Olatunde
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President, Nigerian Medical Association(NMA), Dr. Francis Faduyile has solicited for harmony among health workers so as to boost service delivery for an improved health sector in Nigeria.

He stated   this  while speaking with The Hope in Akure.

According to him, it is important that each association in the health sector understands its role and stay within it so as to get things done rightly.

He said; “Health work is a team work. The medical team with a head must have a focus.

” The world of medical management and the evolution of technical management has made every member of the medical team important and this would help ward off the emergence of dispute.

“More interactions have been put in place so as to assist in resolving our issues internally and also work together as a team.”

However, he charged Nigerians to aspire to great heights, saying “when you dream small, you will never achieve any big dream.”

In his lecture titled; “transforming the Nigerian health sector: the critical roles of all stakeholders”  Vice Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede explained that improvement in health requires a secured foundation and added that health professionals have key roles to play in enhancing improved health standard in Nigeria saying “it would make positive impacts in the nation’s health sector.”

Listing poor  facilities, funding,  outdated curricula, medical tourism and erratic and  power supply among others as some of the core challenges, he stressed the need for the health sector to be given the needed attention saying “if the needed facilities are provided in Nigeria, nobody would go outside the country for  health care.”

The OAU Vice Chancellor who described the lack of accurate statistics and the resultant difficulty with planning as a bane of the Nigerian health care system, called on stakeholders to refocus and re-energise the health system for   better service delivery.

He said; “We must work differently henceforth and be more specific about how success should be measured. What is required is a new kind of orientation and leadership at every level of health care system that would organise the system into teams, measure performance and outcomes not by the volume of work, patients seen, staff strength, number of professionals trained or the number of bed spaces but by the actual results and benefits derived from the process.

” The health care sector must design its own specific performance evaluation criteria. “

While speaking further, he noted that improvement in health can only be achieved through effective partnership and approach between government and stakeholders.

He commended the efforts of those who have contributed to the improvement of health care delivery in Nigeria and advised that medical personnel especially Doctors must strive toward the progress of the profession and ensure that true professionalism strive.

However, he called for the support of health services to the needs of the society in order to guarantee a healthier life and open channels between the health sector and broader social, political, economic and physical determinants of health.