Frontpage News (3254)
Osinbajo approves appointment of 14 heads of tertiary health institutions (FULL LIST)
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has approved the appointment of 14 Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors in Federal Teaching Hospitals, Federal Medical Centres and Specialty Hospitals in Nigeria. This was disclosed in an approval letter signed by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Acting President and addressed to the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole.
According to a press statement by the ministry, the appointments take immediate effect for a four-year tenure and are in two categories. Five of the appointees will be serving their second and final term.
Health workers at the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee of Unions/Associations have protested against an alleged plan by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, to impose his candidate as the Medical Director of the hospital.
The Kwara State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association on Wednesday advocated continuous psychiatric evaluation for all political office holders.
Wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, has commissioned a sickle cell diagnosis and treatment center in Umuahia.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is to embark on a massive enlightenment campaign in Katsina State to fast track the domestication of the act and take-off of the scheme in the state.The National Chairman of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Dr. Albert Alkali, has said that the Federal Government is not blameless in the crisis between the managers of the National Health Insurance Scheme and Health Management Organisations in the country.
Alkali noted that NHIS managers had implemented policies that allowed corruption to thrive under the scheme. He spoke at a briefing in Lagos as part of activities leading to the ACPN 36th Annual Conference.
Ebola outbreak in Africa ends, gaps in public health leave region vulnerable
Epidemiologists Anne Rimoin boarded a flight to Kinshasa on 19 May with a precious cargo in her luggage: the components of a diagnostic test for Ebola. Rimoin hoped that the test, the GeneXpert Ebola Assay, would help officials to track cases in the latest Ebola outbreak, which was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on May 11. The test was developed during the disastrous 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
The existence of the Ebola assay is a sign that the world’s ability to respond to outbreaks of the virus has improved. But the test was not available where it was needed when Ebola erupted in the DRC, says Rimoin, of the University of California, Los Angeles, who has worked with the Congolese Ministry of Health for 15 years. “The fact that I had to go out there with diagnostics in my briefcase is an example of the fact that we’re not fully prepared on that score,” she says.
Former Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has urged the Federal Government and its state counterparts to muster enough political will to discontinue the practice of Nigerians travelling abroad for medical treatment.
The Medical Doctor-turned-politician said In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Thursday that the constant ‘’relocation of Nigerians overseas for medical tourism is a sort of clear message to the various governments at all levels, because Nigeria has abundant medical practitioners, who are celebrated all over the world, but that the required infrastructures necessary for them to practice their trade in the country are lacking.
The Ogun State government on Monday said it has shut down 186 illegal health facilities in the State in the last one year over allegations of quackery and sharp practices.The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, who spoke in to journalists in Abeokuta, stated that the move was made to curtail the intemperance activities of quackery, which according to him was increasing.
He said those being nabbed by the monitoring team of the Ministry for either operating with fake certificates, invalidation of licenses or engaging in health facilities without government authorization had been charged to court by the state Ministry of Justice.
Bauchi maternity, built 65 years ago, uses lanterns in labour room for deliveries
A health facility, Town Maternity Clinic, Bayan Fada, in Bauchi metropolis, Bauchi State, which was built 65 years ago, still uses lanterns in the labour room when there is no power supply, The PUNCH has learnt. A source at the hospital, who did not want to be named, disclosed this on Tuesday at the maternity located behind the Bauchi emir’s palace.
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The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Usman Yusuf, has been suspended.The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, approved the suspension on Thursday with immediate effect, multiple sources familiar with the development informed PREMIUM TIMES Thursday night.
Mr. Yusuf, 54, took over the state-run health insurance provider on July 29, 2016.But his reign has been fraught with allegations of fraud.
Two experimental treatments for skin cancer, tailor-made to target a particular patient's tumours, proved safe in small-scale trials, their developers reported Wednesday. The vaccines also triggered an immune response to tumour cells, they said, although this does not necessarily equate to a cure.
These are the first drug trials in humans with personalised vaccines directed at neoantigens -- molecules, caused by DNA mutations, found in cancer cells. The results of both were published in the journal Nature.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, said the federal government would invest N9 billion in upgrade of hospitals to halt foreign medical trips by Nigerians.
Mr. Udoma said this while interacting with civil society organizations under the auspices The Situation Room on Tuesday in Abuja.
Reps summon health minister, order NHIS executive secretary’s reinstatement
The House of Representatives on Wednesday summoned the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, over his decision to suspend the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Yusuf Usman.
The House, in its resolution in Abuja, directed the minister to reinstate the ES within seven days and to also halt the re-accreditation of Health Maintenance Organisations pending the outcome of the intervention by the House.
