Experts in the health sector have urged the government and healthcare providers in the private sector, to take advantage of opportunities presented by technologies to boost healthcare delivery in the country.
This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by Oluwakemi Eluma, Finance and Compliance Manager, ACIOE associates limited.
Eluma said that the advice was part of the resolutions by experts at a webinar on Human Resources for Health Challenges and Universal Coverage in Nigeria.
It was organised by ACIOE Associates in collaboration with ACOE Foundation.
She said healthcare providers should leverage on and “enhance digital health to improve telemedicine in Nigeria’.
The manager said the participants also advocated increased government spending and private sector support.
“This will include closing the existing gaps by reforming suitable monetary and nonmonetary incentive packages to encourage qualified health workers to work in rural and remote areas”, Eluma said.
On the manpower deficit in the health sector, Eluma said the participants urged both the private and public sectors to attract more experts to train more healthcare workers to match up with the population.
She said they also urged increased capacity of training institutions and streamlining admission criteria.
“Current statistics reveals that one doctor is available to treat 30,000 patients in some southern parts of Nigeria, while states in the north are as bad as one doctor to 45,000 patients.
“WHO recommended that the appropriate ratio of people to doctors is 1: 100.
“We have to adopt transformative strategies in the scale-up of health workers education and strengthen the capacity and quality of health training institutions through accreditation”, she said.
She reckoned that investments in health workers from the public and private sectors should align with population health needs and health system demands.
