By Friday Idachaba
Lokoja – The National Association of Provosts of Colleges of Health Sciences and Technology has appealed to the Federal Government to establish a Federal College of Health to address accreditation challenges in state-owned health colleges.
Dr Bayo Ojo, chairman of the association made the call in a statement he jointly signed with Mr Nuhu Anyegwu, Public Relations Officer of the association and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lokoja.
Ojo said all the Colleges of Health Sciences and Technology in the country are state-owned, established in 1992 when the Federal Government adopted the policy of primary healthcare delivery system.
“Right from that time up till now, those schools have not been accredited due to poor funding.If they were established by the federal government, there would have been funding coming from different quarters”, the chairman observed.
He said that rather than establishing a well-funded Federal College of Health Sciences and Technology for sustainable high level training of middle cadre health personnel, successive administrations had left it for state governments to shoulder.
“In this country, we have both federal and state universities, colleges of education, polytechnics and other institutions of higher learning but there is no Federal College of Health, anyone you see is state-owned and they are characterized by poor funding”, Ojo said.
The Federal College of Health Sciences and Technology, according to him, will run courses and programmes in Community Health, for Pharmacy Technicians and Medical Laboratory Technicians
The associationation also called on the West Africa Health Examinations Board (WAHEB) to stop further ban on Environment Health programmes being run by the colleges over alleged examination malpractice.
The chairman said that it was decided at the association’s meeting held on July 12, in Abuja, that the body frowned at the development and warned that if the trend continue, it will shift its base to Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON).
He urged WAHEB to always verify allegations thoroughly and ascertain the culpability of the institutions or individuals before meting out any punishment. (NAN)