Health
By Kennedy Nnamani
PROF Chris Bode, Chief Medical Director of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, has called on the Federal Government to invest more in the health sector, which he equates to a goldmine if properly structured.
Delivering the 7th inaugural lecture of the 2021/2022 academic session of the University of Lagos with the theme: “Bloom Where You Are Planted: From Pediatric Surgeon to Hospital Administration”, Prof. Bode, said that Nigeria should decide who pays for healthcare.
According to him, the universal coverage by the National Health Insurance Services should have appropriate price structure that ensures fair pay for work done by hospitals in order to allow Nigeria to retain its healthcare workforce and improve the facilities to international standards.
“Government will have ample tax returns from this sector,” he added.
While making further recommendations for a better health sector in the country, Prof. Bode enjoined the government to promote the training of frontline healthcare workers on the early recognition and proper handling of pediatric surgical emergencies. He noted that this will improve the nation’s surgical outcome.
Prof. Bode, who has been a pediatrist for more than a decade from where he rose to become the LUTH administrator, also underlined the importance of investing in surgical care for children.
He said: “Investment in the surgical care of children is a wise choice to ensure a healthy future for our country. Children’s health should not be an afterthought to be grafted on the plan for adults.
“Nigeria needs children-specific hospitals which are fully dedicated to the care of our little ones,” he added.
Furthermore, the lecturer, who also clamored for deregulation of funding of public University education while government limits its role to overall policy formulation, stated that unions in tertiary institutions should think out of the box towards innovative ideas to transform the educational and health sectors as “nothing good is free, especially in this unapologetic era of global capitalism.”
He added that the universities should interact with both public and private stakeholders for better healthcare services in the country.
“Our universities should wean themselves from government handouts and meaningfully interact with the town, industries and grants authorities for better healthcare funding.
Productivity in our universities should mean more than a secure tenure, while society waits for game-changing leadership from the ivory tower,” he added.
KN
Tags: Kennedy Nnamani LUTH Prof Chris Bode
