Health Minister did not call for a reduction in the duration of training in Medicine and Dentistry 

 

The attention of the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu has been drawn to The Sun newspaper's editorial of September 25,2013 in which the paper criticised the minister for allegedly calling for a reduction in te number of years for medical studies as a solution to the shortage of medical doctors in our healthcare system. 

 

The report is completely misleading. The minister expressed concern about the undue emphasis on elongation of duration of academic curricular without a commensurate attention to content, depth or quality. In other words, that increasing the number of years for any academic course or programme for reasons that have nothing to do with quality or depth is unproductive. 

 

The minister frowned at the tendency by many health professions to lengthen the number of years of training supposedly as a tool to improve their job evaluation rating. Such unwarranted lengthening does not add value to the role many of them play in healthcare delivery upon qualification. Some do not even have to be degree programmes at all to fulfill their roles. 

 

His reference to a shortened period in the training in Anatomy in, the University of Lagos was to illustrate the fact that it did not affect the quality of the Lagos-trained doctors. 

 

It should not be forgotten that it was this Minister of Health that raised a committee for the review and update of medical school curriculum after more than 50 years, in a collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other stakeholders. The committee has completed its assignment and produced a new template for MBBS/BDS degrees. If it was the minister's agenda to merely reduce the number of years for medical studies, this would have been canvassed in submissions to the committee. 

 

Dan Nwomeh 

Special Assistant on Media and Communication

to the Minister of Health