Frontpage News (3249)
The Association of Resident Doctors of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos, last weekend, embarked on an indefinite strike action to press home their demands. 
Over the weekend, matriculation ceremony was held for 234 pioneering students of Nigeria’s first and Africa’s second medical university, the University of Medical Sciences Ondo state.
The ceremony also marked the inauguration of the institution. Speaking at the event, Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo state, said the establishment of the university was the state’s strategic response to reverse the brain drain in Nigeria’s medical industry.
Vanguard reported that the governor said the institution would also create an institutional base for the production of proficient health care manpower to service the nation.
Nigerian health policy makers gather in Sokoto for the 58th National Council on Health
Once every year, the Ministers of Health, leaders of all the health parastatals, and the commissioners of health and their teams gather to agree and harmonise health policy for the Federal Republic. It is the highest policy making body in the health sector for the country.
So between the 7th and 11th of March 2016, public health sector leaders congregated in Sokoto, (the State of the Caliphate as it is called), to deliberate on the progress in the Nigerian health sector and to chart a way forward.
It was the first National Council of Health meeting for the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, his Minister of State Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the Permanent Secretary Dr. Amina Shamaki and most of the Commissioners of Health (this is not counting the emergency meeting called in the wake of the Lassa Fever outbreak late in 2015).
Healthcare providers in Nigeria have been urged to be friendly to patients and clients, especially the youths. The call was made at the 7-day training of health workers in all the four Primary Healthcares, (PHC) workers in Apapa Iganmu Council in Ijora, Lagos State, last week organised by Action Health Incorporated in collaboration with Action for Change.
According to the programme officer, Francesca Bola Akalede, the training was borne out of the recognition of the various issues that young people face in the region. “Most of the time they don’t have a place to go and we felt they needed information and services such as this,” she said.
Mrs. Akalede said the training of healthcare providers on youth service friendly provision at Olojowon Primary Health Care was part of a project on youth-friendly services at Olojowon PHC.
Association Cautions Public Against Patronizing Hawkers of Medical Services
The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists has cautioned members of the public against patronising hawkers of medical services, describing the trend as “abnormal.” 
WITH less than six months to the end of the deadline for attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and two months to the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nigeria still has one of the worst health indices and far worse than worn-torn countries like Liberia.
Reasons: The Guardian investigation has shown that since the Abuja Declaration in 2001 Nigeria has never spent more than eight per cent of its annual national budget on health. In fact, the country has been spending an average of six per cent of its budget on health in the last six years. Indeed, Nigeria and 27 other countries have worse health care systems than Liberia’s.
A report from the non-profit organisation, Save the Children, published in March 2015, ranked 72 countries on six measures of health-care provision for children, including the newborn mortality rate, the number of health-care workers per 10,000 population, immunisations and skilled birth attendance.
According to the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, Federal Government has sought partnership with stakeholders to boost the country’s healthcare delivery system. He stressed the need for an effective synergy among all stakeholders in the health sector to provide efficient and quality health service to citizens.
The minister said the “inverted health pyramid system’’ would be reversed and restore the pyramid system for the benefit of larger population. He lamented that only about 15 per cent of Nigerians currently access healthcare under the inverted pyramid system, hence the need to take healthcare services to the door steps of rural communities.
Who Killed or Is Killing The Nigerian Public Health Institutions: A Rejoinder
The attention of Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has been drawn to the malicious, self-seeking, condemnable and highly fallacious article purportedly emanating from Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) captioned PUBLIC HOSPITALS ARE DEAD, DOCTORS WARN published in page 4 of the Guardian of March 10, 2016 and the Press Release captioned IMPENDING DISASTER AND COLLAPSE OF GOVERNMENT HOSPITALS AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH SECTOR: A CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION AGAINST EXISTING AND EMERGING ABSURDITIES IN THE NATION’S HEALTH SECTOR and published in The Punch of Tuesday, March 15, 2016, pages 34 and 35, and a few other national dailies.
Ahead of the World Tuberculosis Day, which is on March 24, 2016, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, South-East Asia Regional director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) emphasized on the need to reach out to communities for Tuberculosis detection.
"To end TB, there is a need to reach out to and engage with communities directly for case detection, treatment completion and addressing out-of-pocket expenditures.
"Forging partnerships with civil society groups and between public and private care providers will likewise ensure that present gaps are closed and that a society-wide movement to end TB develops," Singh said.
The Lagos State government has pledged commitment to end childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea, responsible for many deaths of children under five years old in the state.
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Primary HealthCare Board, Dr. (Mrs.) Ibironke Sodeinde, gave the assurance while receiving delegates from the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in collaboration with the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PSN-PACFaH) in her office at Yaba, Lagos.
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Nigerian medical practitioners based in the United States of America under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas on Tuesday said they were determined to relocate to the country if the Federal Government could provide incentives for them.
The Federal Government has called on health professionals to desist from incessant industrial action, which has now become a usual occurrence in the health sector, adding that labour dispute are better resolved through dialogue rather than strike and violence. 
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, has promised to partner with the Abuja Residents Doctors (ARD) as well as other professionals in the health sub-sector to improve the service delivery in the Health sector.
Malam Bello assured that rules and regulations would be sternly followed to the later in administering the Federal Capital Territory in line with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration.
Bello, who gave this assurance when the Abuja Residents Doctors (ARD) paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, further called for patience, commitment and support from the resident doctors in order to improve service delivery in the sector to the residents of the Territory.
A new research conducted by Doctors Without Borders and two pharmaceutical companies, using two new anti-tuberculosis drugs known as bedaquiline and delamanid, has shown 75 to 97 per cent cure rates in affected patients. 
