DOCTORS under the aegis of the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, Lagos State branch, have called on the Federal Government to stop the delivery of primary health care services in its teaching hospitals. 

The association's state Chairman, Dr. Adeyeye Arigbabuwo, made the appeal during the inauguration of the group's executive in Lagos. 

The nation's specialist hospitals, Arigbabuwo said, should focus on complicated cases instead of primary care. 

The hospitals' focusing on complicated cases, he noted, would help to check rising incidence of other chronic ailments in the country. 

He said, 'They should stop treating typhoid, malaria and other minor ailments that can be managed in a good primary health care facility. 

In fact, if tertiary institutions do not dabble into primary health care, they will serve the public better because they will have time to attend to complex cases they are trained and created for." 

Arigbabuwo, who also called for tax relief for private hospitals in the state, said the action would help them to cushion the financial burden of running their firms. 

He added that supporting the private sector had become imperative, considering the role it played in containing the Ebola Virus Disease in the country Arigbabuwo said, "We were the first people that were called to face the Ebola saga. Remember, the government doctors were on strike then. Even, the former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, acknowledged our role in containing EVD in the country." 

The association's First Vice-Chairman, Dr. Tunji Akintade, called on regulatory agencies to help flush out illegal hospitals in the state. 

According to Akintade, the activities of quacks increase the mortality and morbidity rates in the country.