Victor EzejaIn the face of continued depletion of healthcare professionals, the Nigerian government has indicated plans to retrain 120,000 healthcare workers across the country.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate, who made this known in an interview on Channels TV on Wednesday, said the retraining would help to equip the frontline health workers with modern skills necessary to give better care to the people.
“Human resources are the lifeblood of the health system. So, we plan to retrain 120,000 frontline health workers, this year. They’re all in the states. They’re all employed by the state governments. We will retrain them, with the skills that are necessary to interface with our population to give care to pregnant women, children, those who are ill, in our primary health care centers and also be able to refer them to secondary facilities and teaching hospitals when need arises,” the minister stated.
There have been reports of mass exodus of healthcare professionals to abroad in search of better jobs.
While acknowledging the difficulties faced by many health care workers, especially in rural communities, Pate expressed appreciation for their dedicated service across the country, noting that working in the country goes beyond financial consideration.
Speaking on budgetary allocations to the health sector in Nigeria, the health minister admitted that it is low, adding that the country is far below where it should be in terms of investment in healthcare.
He expressed dissatisfaction some states which despite increasing budget for health over the years, often fail to release allocate fund on time.
He said, “I think all of us recognize health is so fundamental and states need to move up in terms of the allocation, we are far below where we should be.
“Federal Government is moving up, some states have increased the allocation but have not released over the years what they have even budgeted.
“So the political prioritization implies that the budget is increased but also the releases are not timely to the institutions in the respective states.”
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HPV Vaccines In Nigeria Safe – Minister
The Minister affirmed that the HPV vaccines being distributed across the country is safe to take and has ability to prevent cervical cancer in women in future.
Recall that the Federal Government recently launched the HPV Vaccine campaigns.
Pate said there is an ongoing screen of women for cervical cancer cases and urged people not to shun it.
He countered some messages circulating on social media which discourages people from going for the HPV Vaccines.
“This myth gets circulated by conspiracy theories are baseless. This is not the first country to use it, several developing countries have found this vaccine useful. The vaccine that has been developed, tested it’s safe and effective. And there isn’t enough of it, and there isn’t enough of it and it costs resources.”
He said the Federal government raised resources to launch the vaccine to protect women against cervical cancer in future, adding that not lees then 2,000 women lose their lives every year due to the disease.
He said they have continued to address the misunderstanding held by those resisting going for it. He added that even with the resistance, many Nigerians still turn up.
“We had a very successful test phase face launch of the cervical cancer vaccine. There was 78% coverage in the states that participated in it and the second phase will be in the first quarter of 2024. So Nigerians did not heed the lone voices on the side and these are conspiracy theorists.”
“The vaccine is safe and effective, and it has been done in countries in Africa and everywhere,” Pate stated.
Best Age of Women to Go for HPV Vaccine
The Minister of health further explained that the best age of females to go for HPV Vaccines is from nine to 14 years.
“Nine to 14 is the best age to get that because the HPV transmission begins to rise beyond that age. So you need to protect against it. It’s a virus that is slow in the changes that it causes in the cervix and it takes years for the cancer to start to develop and manifest itself. You have to do it when the protection that the vaccine offers will be useful rather than wait until it’s late when already the virus has infected the young person and has begun to initiate the changes against cervical cancer. And this is based on very strong scientific evidence and that’s why nine to 14 is better.”
He called on all levels of government and Nigerians to play their part in improving health and wellbeing.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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