The Federal Government announced on Saturday that it had engaged in discussions with health associations to resolve the ongoing strike and conflicts within the healthcare sector.
During a press briefing outlining the ministry’s healthcare agenda, Professor Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, emphasised the critical role of human resources in advancing healthcare and enhancing the well-being of the population.
He said, “We have got amazing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory scientists in Nigeria, and people call them outside of the country all the time, but we need to make them visible so that we can be proud of them as professionals in our country.
“On the issue of health workers’ strike is a major issue. Ultimatums, strike, and rancour. Underlying the rancour is a fundamental erosion of trust between various actors which has occurred many years. As a government, between the labour ministry and ourselves, we got right into it and we have met with four of the professional associations, and all of those meetings were very constructive because they are all Nigerians, they all share the pain, there is no health worker that will be satisfied being trained to save life and sit at home watching people die.
She affirmed the government’s commitment to collaborating with all health worker associations to address the existing disputes, with several of them already resolved.
She also assured that ongoing discussions were underway concerning matters related to the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission as well as the Civil Service. She underscored the importance of fostering trust among all stakeholders as a crucial step in resolving the remaining issues.
She further explained, “We are listening to ourselves and we are on the side of Nigerians and we want to restore the respectability that the health profession has and we cannot do it if we are always fighting among ourselves, and the health workers will acknowledge that we should move to the phase where issues are less.”
The Minister assured that the health sector will be reformed, and health security will be prioritised.
“We will advocate strongly that Nigeria needs to prioritise spending on health. We will ensure health security, we will strengthen our public health core capabilities for self-surveillance, to be able to respond to outbreaks sooner before they get out of hand because we have done that in the past. We have done that with Ebola, Polio and we can be able to do that in our national health security.”
He added that the National Health Act will be implemented to the fullest, including the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.
