As Nigerians joins the rest of the world to celebrate the 2019 International Day of Radiology (IDOR), the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has called on both the Federal and State Governments to put in more effort at ending brain drain in the health system.
The NMA committee chairman on Radiation and Radiodiagnosis, Dr Ododo Bernard made a call during a press Conference in Lokoja on Saturday.
Dr Bernard noted that the 2019 International Radiology Day is very unique as it coincided with the second national health summit organized by the NMA where medical practitioners and other health care workers sat with health policy makers and government agencies to discuss on the problems militating against effective service delivery to patients and proffered workable and achievable solutions.
Dr Bernard said there is need for the government to trained health specialists, especially doctors and in particular radiologists, from moving out of the country in drones to seek to trade their skills in foreign environment where modern facilities and tools are readily available with better remuneration for service.
According to him, there is need to retain the Radiologists who are very vital in diagnosis of ailments of the body using various technologies to image the internal parts of the body and interpret the result to pave way for appropriate treatment of diseases.
He stated that every secondary or tertiary health facilities owned by the states and tertiary institutions owned by federal government should be equipped with modern ultrasound scanner, x-ray machines, computed tomography, Magnetic resonance imaging and modern radiotherapy facilities (for the treatment of cancers) to ensure quick and efficient diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
“Delay or inaccurate diagnosis invariably leads to inappropriate treatment which could result in further worsening of our health indices” he said.
Speaking further on ways this could be achieved, he advised government to consider setting up of tertiary health trust fund similar to TETFUND to improve health facilities, re-channelling large chunk of retrieved looted funds into this project and considering Public Private Partnership (PPP) that is built on transparency.
Also speaking, the National President, Association of Radiologists in Nigeria (ARIN), Dr Kamal Jimoh enumerated the strategic role played by a radiologist in the effective management of patient, stressing the need for government at all levels to provide enabling environment for this group of specialists to contribute their vital quarter in the health sector.
The 2019 International day of Radiologist with the theme ‘sport imaging’ was celebrated on 8th November across the 36 States of Nigeria including the Federal Capital territory.
