By Roseline Okakah

National President, Association of Health Records and Information Management Practitioners of Nigeria, Comrade Michael Luka Mallo has attributed Nigeria’s lack of accurate and reliable data to the choice of wrong people in charge.

Comrade Mallo who stated that the World Health Organization has been complaining about non-existence of reliable data, hinted that those who are qualified for data management are health information managers.

He stated these at the 42nd Annual General Meeting, AGM of the National Scientific Conference tagged “Sunshine 2023” held in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

The President added that health information managers are managers of patients’ health records and hospital-held health information in Nigeria.

He emphasized that the aim of the conference is to sensitize the public that the rightful people who are professionally trained in the area of data collection are the health Information managers.

Chairman, Ondo State chapter of the association, Elder Kubolaje Ojo Famujimi, stressed the need to stop the use of obsolete means of obtaining data and to embrace new technologies of data gathering.

Elder Famujimi highlighted some of the the roles of the members of the association to include effective documentation of healthcare data stressing the fact that “if is not documented, definitely it is not done.”

According to him, the conference is for members of the association to put heads together to enable them gain experience and be exposed to new innovations.

The Registrar of Health Records Officers’ Registration Board of Nigeria, Alhaji Babagana Mustapha, said rapid growth in information technology has become a necessary development that must be embraced by any field in the Medical and allied professions.

Babagana appealed to the government to intensify efforts towards ensuring that all those temployed as health records officers are trained and licensed to practice in health care institutions so that the country can have the needed data required to take decisions.

He urged government to give emphasis to the training institutions to support them in all possible ways to see that they have gotten enough number of professionals that will monitor the data in health care facilities.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Ondo State, Pharm. Dr. Folukemi Aladenola advised professionals in the association to improve themselves from paper based to electronic based records keeping.

“Let them go for trainings. If government is making provision for computers and we are using solar, what is left is for them to improve on their capacity so as to be able to make use of the electronic health records” Aladenola said.

Also speaking, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the association should know the importance of data and the usefulness of having reliable data.

The Minister who was represented by the Director, Health Planning Research and Statistics in the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chris Isokpunwu said the present government is determined to generate quality data strategically.

“If the data quality is not right, any decision based on it will be wrong, but the Ministry is strengthening our data collection capacity.

“We are training data collectors, health information officers and the Ministry is looking at strengthening and deploying electronic medical records in the health facilities”, Chris added.