Stakeholders charge Adewole on industrial harmony, others in health sector

Stakeholders have charged the new Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole, to ensure harmony in the sector, especially by resolving what they called perennial disagreement and battle for supremacy between doctors and other health workers.

Doctors under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and Guild of Medical Directors (GMD) have been at loggerheads with other health workers under the umbrella of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and Allied Health Professionals Association (AHPA) over headship of the sector.

JOHESU/AHPA had advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to appoint a medical doctor as the new minister if he wanted lasting peace and industrial harmony in the sector.
Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) and pharmacists under the aegis of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) urged the minister to ensure success of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The Society, in a congratulatory letter accompanied by an agenda for healthcare in Nigeria and signed by its President, Olumide Akintayo, said the PSN considers it necessary that the in-coming minister come up with specific action plans on UHC by full incorporation of Community Based Social Health Insurance Programme (CBSHIP).

The CMA Vice President (West African Region), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, wants Adewole to strive towards a ‘strict’ and ‘committed’ implementation of the National Health Act, which became law late last year. He also wants Adewole to restrict government’s funding of travels for foreign medical treatment by political and public office holders. The association canvassed political leaders’ commitment to better health sector, urging them to ensure that Nigerians are not denied their fundamental health rights.