Healthcare: NMA harps on increased budget allocation, improved doctors welfare

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State Chapter, has urged the Federal Government to do everything humanly possible to increase the budgetary allocation to health sector and improve working conditions of doctors.

The new Chairman of NMA Lagos, Dr Temidire Ewonowo, gave the advice on the sideline of an Emergency General Meeting of the association in Lagos.

Ewonowo, also an Obstetrician, said there must be deliberate and intentional attention to the health sector for the nation to have an effective health system that would promote the overall well-being of all citizens.

According to him, stable economy with effective health system are keys to the progress and overall good health of citizens.

Ewonowo decried that the budgetary allocation to the health sector was too small, which he said was a major impediment to growth and development of the sector.

He urged the government to pay more attention to health by increasing the budget allocation to the health sector.

“We have made several cries and agitations to the government that the budgetary allocation to health is too small.

“It tells to a very large extent how insensitive the governments are to the needs of the people, particularly the health sector.

“What they are allocating to the health sector is nothing to talk about. Mortality rate is quite on the high side – there’s no doubt about that.

“Let the budgetary allocation to the health sector be increased to enable its optimal operation,” he said.

Ewonowo frowned that many health practitioners had migrated out of the country – “japa”, and many more were eager to follow suit, leaving the few on ground overstretched.

He attributing the development to poor living conditions of the healthcare practitioners, describing the renumeration of the medical doctors as “nothing to write about”.

According to him, a doctor gives his or her best with respect to care for the patients, yet, a doctor cannot comfortably boost of an average standard of living – whether in terms of housing, transportation or feeding.

Ewonowo, who decried the acute shortage of manpower in the Nigeria’s health sector, emphasised the need for the government to prioritise welfare of the doctors, as it do everything possible to retain and encourage them to stay in the country to operate.

“We have health institutions where the government puts in place a lot of structures, hospitals. But what about the manpower?

“How do they encourage the doctors that work in the structures? How do they motivate them? How do you provide the amenities that they need?

“These are the real issues. Not just the structures the governments are putting in place. They need to encourage the doctors to stay back. They need to encourage the doctors to put in the best and give the best to their patients.

‘We have not seen this from the government. And we will continue to make this agitation loud and clear.

“The government must be responsive and responsible to the yarnings of the masses, to the yarnings of the doctors – that the health sector must work in the interest of the masses.

“At the moment, the health sector is in a pitiful state. We will continue to raise this agitation until the government becomes sensitive to the plights and needs of the doctors,” Ewonowo said.