The Honourable Minister of
The Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire
and the Minister of Health, Germany, His Excellency, Jens Spahn,
has explored possible areas of cooperation towards improving and
strengthening the Nigerian health system. The Minister made this
known while fielding questions from journalists after bilateral
talks between the two Ministers in Abuja.
Speaking, Ehanire said the meeting highlighted areas
where Nigeria needs support, especially as regards fighting and
eradication of diseases like polio, public Health emergencies
(patients’ transportation), knowledge sharing and training of
Trainers.
The Minister noted that Nigeria is looking for areas
of Technical Corporation from developed countries in the
areas of medicine, oncology, surgery, especially the practical side
of surgery which he said, the country could benefit from, through
the involvement of foreign experts from Europe and
possibly retired Doctors as volunteers to lead Nigerian
Doctors in enhancing quality of service and strengthening the
sector.
Dr. Ehanire stressed that, Technical cooperation and
improvement are needed in order to boost service delivery and
strengthen the Nigeria Health system adding that when experts in
the health sector work effectively and efficiently, the sector
would help to boost the Country’s Economy.
He also disclosed the German Government’s desire to
send experts to Nigeria to assist in scaling –up service delivery
by committing funds into many areas of the Health system,
Education, Agriculture, especially on vocational training to
improve Small/Medium Enterprise to reduce migration between Nigeria
and Europe.
Dr. Ehanire hinted that the knowledge,
experience, and expertise from other developed countries like
Germany could support Nigeria in E- health, mobile health, and
means of transportation of the sick to hospitals, efficient and
service delivery to enhance the health system in Nigeria.
Speaking on brain-drain in the sector, the Minister
said that lack of opportunities is part of the driving forces. To
this, the Minister assured that the Federal Government is working
assiduously towards arresting the situation by creating
opportunities and improving the working environment of health
workers.
The German Minister of Health, on his part informed
that Nigeria and Germany already have a strong partnership, where
eradication of Polio has been their priority. He stated that German
has identified five (5) Hospitals in Nigeria that would be
supported by German Ministry of Economic development as pilot
scheme of the train the trainers’ concept towards better healthcare
delivery.
He therefore mentioned that the German Government is
poised to commit about 30.5 million Euros towards this endeavour,
which include: research, disease prevention and control and
improvement of the status of health care system in Nigeria.