ENUGU – The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists has urged the federal and state governments to hand over the management of hospitals to core healthcare administrators.
The National President of the association, Dr Godswill Okara, made the call in Enugu on Wednesday while briefing newsmen on its activities.
Okara said it had become necessary to enhance professionalism and stem the decline in the sector.
“The way to go in stemming the decline in the health sector in Nigeria is to professionalise the management of hospitals.
“There is a professional group called health service administrators whose core function is the administration and management of health services.
“In advanced countries, health service administrators administer and manage hospitals as chief executive officers while core professionals concerned themselves with rendering their professional services to patients,” he said.
The president recalled that it was the norm in Nigeria in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when its health service was ranked the fourth best among the Commonwealth nations.
He traced the decline in the sector to politicisation of the headship of hospitals in 1985 through Decree 10, which he claimed was the root of decay and decline in the sector.
Okara urged President Goodluck Jonathan to re-invigorate and intensify his drive for rule of law and due process by directing the Federal Ministry of Health and the chief executives of parastatal agencies in the health sector to comply with statutory provisions and laws for improved performance.
He decried the way medical laboratory scientists in many government hospitals were humiliated and intimidated, adding that it portended great danger to healthcare delivery.
Okara said that modern healthcare was a multi-professional and multi-disciplinary service, adding that the tendency of some medical doctors to feel that other healthcare professions were appendages of medicine and surgery was a mere fallacy.
He called on Jonathan and other stakeholders to lend their voice to halt the decline in the sector occasioned by lawless conduct of the management of hospitals. (NAN)
