Anxiety as Buhari fails to reconstitute board of medical council

Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) says it “may not be able to guarantee calm” in the health sector after the Buhari Administration failed to reconstitute the board of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria it dissolved three years ago.

NMA had earlier issued an ultimatum for the board to be reconstituted by September 30 six weeks the presidency promised it would be reconstituted “soon”.

On Independence Day, the association extended its ultimatum for another two weeks.

MDCN regulates doctors and dentists and their practice nationwide. Without a board, it cannot put its members on trial or probe petitions against their practice.

NMA expressed disappointment that healthcare delivery to Nigerians is “being gambled with.”

“The Association expresses her displeasure over this development despite repeated appeals to re-constitute the council of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) over three years after its dissolution,” NMA president Francis Faduyile said in a statement.

Doctors have gone to court to seek legal interpretation of “body corporate with perpetual succession” in the act setting up the MDCN.

“Over the years, we have been alerting the public on the increasing rate of brain drain and medical tourism, coupled with the fact that the health sector is not regulated ” said Faduyile.

“The NMA as the custodian of the peoples’ health believes that a sector that is not well regulated is prone to quackery and this has a debilitating effect on the health care of our citizenry.

The association called on “political gladiators” to make health key agenda in their manifestos to improve Nigeria’s health indices.”