…As Eko Hospital gets accreditation for postgraduate training

In a bid to strengthen medical professionalism in the country, the Chief Medical Director, Eko Hospital, Dr. Olusegun Odukoya, has called on the federal government to support private hospitals providing consultancy training for doctors in the country.

He said this would ensure that all necessary infrastructure, equipment and funds needed to carry out postgraduate trainings in various specialties of medicine are fully available, as well as help in producing highly trained consultants.

Odukoya, who made this known during a media chat with journalists in Eko Hospital, Ikeja, stated that outside direct funding, which was very important, the government can as well support by putting policies on ground that would reduce the cost of purchasing or importing medical equipment into the country.

He said: “For instance, if someone is bringing medical equipment into the country, government should make sure the custom duties are brought down to the barest minimum because the equipment are being brought in to save the lives of the citizens and as well improve professionalism. And this will in turn encourage other organisations and persons in bringing medical equipments into the country.

“This is exactly what is happening in India where we are all running to for medical assistance. Today, they have all necessary medical equipments needed for adequate treatment. Nigerian government should take a queue from this,” he stated.

He also explained that Eko Hospital has decided to take a bold step in the area of training of postgraduate doctors in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O and G) in line with the vision of the hospital, which was to be a centre of excellence in high standard medical service delivery, training and research.

According to him, “despite the fact that the hospital has been involved in postgraduate training for Family Medicine since the past 30 years and produced several fellows in the specialty, the hospital felt obliged to expand its scope in training, hence the decision to start a postgraduate program for O and G.

“The department of O and G in September last year applied for postgraduate training accreditation and the team from the National Postgraduate College came here and inspected our facility. Despite the toughness of the requirements, we were able to meet all necessary demands. Today we are accredited to carry out such training. This is a first in the private medical sector in the country.”

Odukoya further explained that what the accreditation therefore means was that the hospital can now offer postgraduate program for O and G, and then produce consultants in that specialty.

Asked why there has been brain drain in the country especially in the medical field despite the various trainings, he said the issue of brain drain was beyond whether renumeration for the doctor was big or not, that it involved a lot of things including good governance.

“To stop brain drain in the country, the government must ensure that all basic amenities and other necessary things needed for comfortable living are provided in the country. We must look beyond just renumeration.

“For someone who is working, whether with good renumeration or not, if he gets home and there is no light, no clean water, and the economy is generally bad, what would you expect from such people? So, to stop brain drain either in the medical field or in any other profession, we must look beyond a short term approach.’’ He said long term approach should be considered as this involves good governance,” he said.