The President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Mohammed Suleiman, has said expenditures made in the health sector should be regarded as investments rather than expenditure.

Mr Suleiman made the assertion on Tuesday in Jos at NARD’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, with the theme “Innovating for equity: Technology as a bridge between poverty and health.”

The president said the crisis in the health sector required urgent, decisive, people-centred reforms to tackle them.

He stated, “The expenditures made by the government in the health sector shouldn’t be seen as expenditures but as investments, as the sector is in urgent need of decisive, people-centred reforms.

“Improvement of doctors’ welfare, remuneration, training, retention and infrastructure are no longer optional but critical to safeguarding the nation’s healthcare system.”

According to him, the association is currently in pursuit of people-focused initiatives such as the establishment of a functional NARD Cooperative Society and the development of a sustainable NARD welfare scheme.

Mr Suleiman noted that other initiatives were the launch of strategic ventures such as water bottling, introduction of welfare-driven innovations that placed resident doctors at the centre of policy decisions and the expansion of its corporate social responsibility efforts.

The NARD president added that the association, which represents resident doctors across Nigeria’s teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centres, would continue to advocate reforms to prevent brain drain, improve working conditions and enhance the quality  of healthcare delivery for Nigerians.

He said the meeting would entail extensive deliberations on healthcare challenges, scientific sessions, and strategic planning aimed at strengthening the role and welfare of resident doctors nationwide.

Similarly, the Local Organising Committee Chairman, Kwarshak Kevin, attributed the rise in the brain drain syndrome in the health sector by doctors to poor remuneration and excessive work hours for doctors.

Mr Kevin called on the government to regulate the work hours of doctors as done in other climes.

He said, “You can imagine a surgeon working on an average of 120 hours in a week, which translates to working for six days without rest, which is unacceptable as the chances of medical errors play out.”

The event was chaired by the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Christopher Piwuna.

Also present at the event was the Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Pokop Bupwatda.

The five-day meeting commenced on January 25 and would end on January 29. 

(NAN)