Posted on: Thu 08-12-2016

Association of Provosts of Colleges of Medicine (APCOM) has called on the Federal Government to consider Medical Colleges for a line funding within the universities capital budget in order to improve and provide the quality of human resource for health that the nation requires and deserved. Th e Ch a ir p e rs o n o f t h e Association, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, said last Thursday, when she led her colleagues to rub minds on issues pertaining to the e d u c a t i o n o f h e a l t h c a r e professionals in the country, with the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, mni, MFR, , in his office. She said that providing this special funding would, in turn, assist the Medical Schools to mitigate the challenge of infrastructures, equipment and facilities that had reduced some of them to producing merely theoretical medical graduates.

Professor Ogunsola disclosed that, with the present admission quota into Medical Schools, less than 3,000 doctors graduated every year, adding that even if all of them stayed in the country and no one died and population growth was zero, it would take a minimum of 77 years for Nigeria to achieve the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s recommended doctorpatient ratio of 1:600. She stressed that the stark reality was that about half of these numbers leave the country even with the population rate growing at 3.2%, annually, above the world average of about 1.1%. This scenario, therefore, called for an urgent need to improve the rate at which healthcare workers are produced to meet the nation's health needs. The special funding, she said, would help the Medical Schools to address the challenges of infrastructure, equipment and facilities that had reduced some of them to producing merely theoretical medical graduates.

Although the Assoc i a tion continues to forge international collaborations and foreign linkages with their counterparts such as the British Medical Council, for best practices, Professor Ogunsola expressed regret that medical education in the country was in crisis as the ability of the Colleges and Faculties of Health Sciences to produce healthcare professionals for the st 21 century was being eroded due to inadequate funding, resulting in decaying and/or inadequate infrastructure; incessant strikes in the health sector and inadequate t e chnology for pr a c ti c a ls, especially in the Basic Medical Sciences. The Provost decried the separation of Colleges of Medicine/ Health from the main campus of most universities due to the need to for them to be close to their teaching hospitals. This, she noted, makes a Medical School to receive funding based on the priority given to it by a university management. She also pleaded with the Commission to intervene in the recent suspension of hardship allowances paid to lecturers in the Basic Medical Sciences as that had dampened the morale of lecturers and might d e g e n e r a t e f u rt h e r if n o t immediately addressed. On the use of Clinical Skills laboratories, ADI powerlabs for Basic Sciences and phantom heads and dental skills laboratories, Professor Ogunsola commended the NUC for prevailing on ViceChancellors to make their use priorities, to which some had responded favourably. She observed that the equipment were very expensive and yet one of the priorities in the area of care. She, therefore, appealed to the NUC to make a case for a special intervention fund, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), for simulation laboratories in Dentistry as well as the provision of dental chairs for students use, saying that this was not always provided for while s e tting up c lini c a l skills laboratories. She further decried the situation whereby teaching hospitals were managed by the Ministry of Health with little oversight by the Ministry of Education. She canvassed the return of teaching hospitals to the universities, stressing that the present arrangement had distorted the purpose for which the hospitals were established.

On the issues of entry level for p r o f e s s i o n a l N u r s i n g , Physiotherapy and the PhD versus the Fellowship programme, among others, she said getting the professionals to come to the universities proved difficult as they were better paid in the hospitals. She thanked the Commission for resolving the issue of PhD and Fellowship programme, but that the Association would like NUC to communicate this, officially to the Vice-Chancellors to enable them start the process of PhDs for Medical personnel in 2017. She commended the Executive Secretary and members of his management for the new BMAS on MBBS, which would create the right pathway for PhD in the Clinical Sciences. She used the forum to call for the involvement of Provosts in the panels for a c c r edit a tion of a c ademi c p r o g r amme s, b o t h a t t h e undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She also congratulated the Executive Secretary on his appointment, recalling that his antecedent as Vice-Chancellor in Bayero University, Kano, spoke volumes about his personality and character. Professor Ogunsola explained that the Association was set up 15 years ago, to serve as a forum for the initiation, dissemination and promotion of progressive ideas in the field of medical and dental education, training and research in Nigeria and other parts of the world. APCOM, according to her, had the core objectives to monitor and advise on the growth and development of Colleges of Medicine and assist the Ministry, Teaching Hospitals and other b o d i e s c h a r g e d w i t h t h e responsibility of executing national policies in these areas; conduct and r evi ew curri cul a , organis e wo r k s h o p s, s emi n a rs a n d conferences in fulfilment of the highest standards in medical and related education as well as coordinate and monitor quality assurance in medical and dental education and training in Nigeria, among others. Responding, Professor Rasheed thanked APCOM for the visit and for the kind words. He agreed that the issues raised were clear and deserving of attention. He particularly acknowledged that Medical Colleges suffer two casualties, when either ASUU or health workers embark on strikes. On hardship allowances, he remarked that it was outside the purview of NUC, but that the Commission would bring up the issue when the new government negotiation team is re-constituted, to prevail on the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission to intervene. The Executive Secretary agreed that the teaching hospitals should be restored back to the Medical Colleges in the universities, saying that stakeholders who participated in the earlier demerger process would be consulted to see reasons for this. According to him, teaching hospitals must be recognised as a laboratory for teaching in the medical schools. He stated that the module system used in training medical students remained a good model in the university setting, which breaks the courses into various components, allowing students ample time to interact effectively with their teachers before examination. He noted that the international collaborations and foreign linkages in medical practice would be encouraged by the Commission. On the funding requests, the Executive Secretary said that TETfund would be wooed to extend its intervention to Medical Schools to address infrastructure as w e l l a s t h e i r c a p a c i t y building/training needs in order to maintain academic and clinical standards. He also noted that government alone might not be able cater for their total funding requirements due to political exigencies. He proposed that it would be in the interest of medical training for undergraduate students to pay some token fees in order for them to obtain the best of training in the field. He disclosed that a one-day retreat would be convened by the NUC to address some of the knotty issues germane to running an effective College of Medicine. He also promised the delegation that the NUC Management would look into other requests of the association, such as their inclusion in accreditation and resource verification programmes that required urgent attention as outlined by the Association. At the meeting were the Vice Chairman and Provost of the College of Health Science, Ebonyi State University, Professor Paul Ibekwe; Administrative Secretary, Professor Oladejo Azeez; Assistant S e c r e t a r y, P r o f e ss o r O . O Odubunmi; Provost-elect, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Professor Afolabi Lesi; Provost, College of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Professor Adesegun Fatusi; Provost, College of Health Science, University of Abuja, Professor Kareem Airede and that of the College of Health Science, Benue State University, Makurdi, Professor S.A. Adebisi.

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