The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Rui Gama Vaz, yesterday said the situation of health workforce in Nigeria is a critical constraint to health development.

 

Vaz said at a stakeholders’ meeting on National HRH policy and strategic plan review, National Health Workforce Registry update and Health Workforce Migration, held in Abuja ”The National Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP 2010-2015) and National Health Bill recognise that the situation of health workforce in Nigeria is a critical constraint to health development.

 

“I am therefore delighted to note the significant efforts among government and various partners towards improving human resource for health as part of strengthening health systems.”

 

According to him, Nigeria is in the right track with the National Health Workforce Registry (NHWR), its operational guideline and policy amendment to support its implementation, as well as task shifting/sharing policy that were approved at 57th National Council on Health initiative.

 

The WHO representative said NHWR would enable the accounting and tracking of health workers, serving as evidence for HRH forecasting, planning and management, while a well monitored task shifting would contribute in addressing the shortage of skilled workers towards improving access to health services for Nigerians.

 

Vaz stressed that yesterday was the pinnacle of all the activities, as it brought together major stakeholders in the country, policy makers, regulatory bodies and other key players, to reach consensus on the revisions of National HRH National Policy and strategic plan and set tone for the next steps in implementation of NHWR.

 

 

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Linus Awute, said the issue of health workforce migration has to be addressed.

 

Awute said Nigeria is expected to have a modest quantity of health care workers providing service in the country. However, the potential of workers produced by various health training institutions is not fully realised due to internal and external migration.

 

According to him, internally, heath care workers move between states and from rural to urban areas in search of better condition of service. The more skilled or more opportune of these also leave Nigeria to work in other countries, especially United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, United States of America, South Africa among others.

 

To address this, the key step is to have a base-line information on health workforce migration in Nigeria that will be used to form the basis for development of more comprehensive strategy.

 

By: TOYIN ADEBAYO