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Hot SourceIncrease Health Workers’ Salaries to Reduce Brain Drain, Odili Urges FG
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
Former Governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, has urged President Bola Tinubu-led federal government to invest more on the health sector an increase the salaries of health workers to reduce brain drain witnessed in the country’s health sector.
Odili, who made the appeal yesterday, at the Induction/Oath-taking of 65 newly graduated medical doctors from PAMO University of Medical Sciences (PUMS), Port Harcourt, Rivers State, lauded President Tinubu for his bold intentions in the health sector.
This was as the Chief Executive Officer of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Prof Fatima Kyari, has commended the management of Pamo University for their commitment to shaping the healthcare system.
In his opening remarks, Dr Odili, who is the founder and Pro-Chancellor of the institution, disclosed that PUMS has produced over 330 healthcare professionals in less than eight years of its existence.
Odili observed that if other institutions across the country could move at the same pace as PUMS, the country would have enough medical practitioners and would not be affected by an unprecedented exodus abroad for greener pastures.
He said: “Let me use this opportunity, Madam Registrar, as the contact, to thank Mr. President for his broad initiative in the health sector. We congratulate him and we urge him to pay very special attention to the training of health professionals because they hold the key to national health. A healthy nation is a wealthy nation.
“We must be healthy first before wealth. So, congratulate him (Tinubu) and urge the federal government to invest more and also look at the review of the remuneration of health workers. That way, we would be killing two birds with a stone.”
Odili continued: “It gives us immeasurable pleasure and gratitude to Almighty God for the progress PUMS has recorded in less than eight years of its existence.
“Today, we are inducting the third set of doctors. And PUMS in this short period of existence, has added not less than 330 healthcare professionals. You can imagine what would happen when all the other schools across the country move at the pace PUMS is moving. Nobody will worry about who moves, running away with japa or whatever they call it, looking for greener pastures.”
Odili thanked Rivers State Government for initiating a scholarship scheme for the indigenes studying medical sciences in the university and charged other state governments across the country, to emulate the Rivers government and provide a platform for their indigenes to achieve their career dreams in the medical sciences.
“If other states start doing what Rivers is doing, nobody will worry about Japa, looking for greener pastures. If you have more than enough (health professionals), you won’t miss those who are leaving.
“So, let me use this opportunity to thank the Rivers State Government, especially the governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for the initiative and sustenance of the scholarships for students who are indigenes.
“We urge other states to copy the Rivers State government, because at the end of it, you would have laid the foundation for good health across the country,” Odili stressed.
Inducting the graduates, Registrar of MDCN, Prof Kyari stated that there has been no compromise in the induction of the MDCN, noting that the graduates merited the oath taking.
She urged the graduates to be good ambassadors of the institution and the council, adding that they “should be mindful of the significance of your contribution in the health sector.”
Prof Kyari further advised them to see their field of career as a calling and not a profession, warning that any person who indulges in any unwholesome practice would be sanctioned accordingly by the council.
She commended Odili for giving women the competitive edge in the institution, noting that “At Pamo University, the span has grown from strength to strength.”
Speaking on the topic, “The Doctor – Honouring a Calling, Not Just a Profession,” the induction lecturer, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, Prof John Ikimalo, advised the graduates to see medical practice as a calling, rather than a profession.
He warned that the medical profession risked being seen as a trade when a practitioner only sees it as a source of wealth acquisition, urging the graduates not to lose their sense of humanity or abuse the trust that patients repose in them.
“As a doctor, you’re not just treating a disease; you’re treating a human being who has a disease. You’re treating a family, a community, a nation. Never lose that sense of human connection. Wherever you go, you must go with that calling. Patients trust you simply because you’re a doctor. Trust is a privilege which only doctors have. Patients will pull off their clothes, tell you their secrets, even the secrets of their unborn babies. Please, honour that trust,” he said.
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt Former Governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, has urged President Bola Tinubu-led federal government to invest more on the health sector an increase the salaries
