Stakeholders want better healthcare

By Our Reporter

Stakeholders in the health sector have urged the government at all levels to pay greater attention to the sector.

They spoke at the just-concluded three-day Medic West Africa Exhibition organised by Informa Markets held at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The conference segment of the exhibition also provided a platform for stakeholders to discuss their health programmes of either their states or organisations.

They said there was the need to pay health workers well, to retool the primary health care system for the betterment of the people and involve private sector and communities to grow the sector. But they cautioned that care must be taken on involvement of the private sector as it could affect government’s objective of providing free and adequate health care.

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Delta State Health Commissioner, Dr. Ononye Mordi said funding is not the major or only problem in health. He said providing facilities that people really need and the professionals are equally vital. He said communities must be carried along in the scheme of things, otherwise people who, the infrastructure are meant for, would detach themselves from, and that this might lead to their failure.

Siemens Country Manager, Nigeria Healthcare GMBT, Lagos Mr. Dulkarm Uwe noted that people are compassionate about healthcare. He however said about 70 per cent of the decisions on health issues are technology based, hence the commitment of Siemens to the sector. He said many of their engineers are Nigerians who support the equipment of the organisation.