The Minister of Health, Prof.C.O.Onyebuchi Chukwu has inaugurated Committee on Nigerian Public Health Training Initiative and the National Steering Committee on the Nigerian Health Workforce Registry.

Inaugurating the two committees today in Abuja, the Minister said that Human Resources for Health are the cornerstone of the health system adding that no health intervention can be successful without an effective workforce.

He maintained that providing the best equipment in our health facilities without health workers with the right skills in the right quantity and mix will not produce the desired improvement in our health indices stressing that it is one of the eight pillars of our National Strategic Health Development Plan.

He noted that Human Resources for Health is faced with myriad of challenges globally, regionally and nationally which includes inappropriate and inadequate training with curricular that are not needs based, poor access to information  and knowledge resources, inadequate numbers of skilled health workers, mal-distribution at different levels of service delivery to mention but a few.

He said that Health Workforce Registry would serve as check and balance system; to monitor progress towards production of required health personnel; provide real-time data on the availability of required health personnel at each level of the healthcare service delivery system as well as data for the general management of Human Resources towards optimising production, deployment, utilization and retention of skilled healthcare workers at all levels in an equitable manner.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Mr.Linus Awute who was represented by the Director of Human Resources, Dr.Mohammed Yahuza said that the Nigerian Public Health Training Initiative (NPHTI) programme was initiated by Government of Nigeria in collaboration with the Carter Foundation, Atlanta, USA with the aim of improving the quality and quantity of health professionals serving the country.

He said that the initiative intends to lay greater emphasis on building the capacity of middle and lower cadre health staff to help provide quality care especially to the vulnerable poor and hard to reach population stressing that it is central to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria.

He said that in order to complement the Nigerian Public Health Training Initiative Programme(NPHTI), the Federal Government of Nigeria in line with current global practice, is also embarking on the full implementation of the national Health workforce Registry adding that the Registry would track all Nigerian Health Workers by capturing routine pre-service training, graduation, work entry and exit retirement as well as attrition.

He said that the Council on Nigerian Public Health Initiative and the national Steering Committee on the Nigeria Health Workforce registry are expected to provide oversight for the successful implementation of these initiatives and also to ensure their sustainability in the long run.

In his remarks, the WHO, Country Representative, Dr.Ruiz Gama Vaz said that inadequacies in number, mix and quality of human resources for health pose greatest challenges to the health system’s capacity to deliver effective and equitable health services noting that addressing health workforce shortages, competencies and productivity are critical intervention to undertake.

He observed that the Inauguration of the steering Committee for the National Health Workforce Registry is also very timely and pertinent stressing that WHO and Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) and other partners supported Federal Ministry of Health in this initiative since 2011 towards having in place a functional human resources information systems and a registry that will account for and track all health workers in the country.