FG to hospitals: Seek alternative sources of funding

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has advised hospitals to seek alternative sources of funding to ensure quality health service delivery.

He gave the advice at the weekend while inspecting facilities at the National Hospital, Abuja.

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He said additional resources from partnership with the private sector and others would help in service delivery.

He also enjoined hospitals to spend their resources wisely as government alone might not provide all the needed resources given other competing needs.

The minister said the country was still threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic and was mindful that countries it had high volume of travel and business with were experiencing the second wave of the pandemic.

Ehanire urged the hospital to put laboratory staff on alert in case of increasing cases of COVID-19.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Jaf Momoh, said many doctors continued to exit Nigeria for greener pastures in droves.

He called for a process that ensured speedy replacement of exiting staff, saying those at the oncology unit in the hospital were overworked.

He said the hospital’s IVF centre had delivered over 800 babies in the last 14 years, deployed electronic medical record in the last two years with a billing component that brought 40 percent fund recovery.