Practically nothing was done in the 15 years of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with all the funds sunk into, as nothing has changed in the Nigerian Health system, Benjamin Ayene a physician and public health consultant said on Tuesday in Abuja.
The failure of the MDGs should be attributed to poor quality of human resources in the health sector and the lack of will to drive health policies and plans.
Ayene who made the disclosure while delivering a keynote paper at a Nursing workshop organised by the State House Medical Centre Abuja with the theme: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the role of healthcare providers, also noted that the SDGs may also fail if government tows the same line.
“Nigeria is not doing well in nearly all the health indices…In fifteen years the statement has not changed. Practically nothing was done in 15years after all the money sunk in…not much was achieved even in the Maternal Child Mortality” Ayena said while delivering his paper.
The MDGs were eight international development goals with a target for the year 2015. The goals which included amongst other things to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. The MDGs had transited to 17 SDGs to build on the successes of the MDGs.
Ayene who championed the National Health Act noted that the country was challenged both by demand and supply of health practitioners, education and training which also included the lack of funding for pre-service training. This is turn birth low productivity and inefficiency. He added that following low remuneration and benefits for health care professionals the sector has witnessed brain drain.
“Nigerians wants to know the road blocks and barriers to achieving the SDGs so the thing was to do a check on why we didn’t deliver on the MDGs. Some people will say it is finance, some people will say it is policy but the point I am making is that it has to do with human resources.
“When we talk about human resources for health we are not talking about doctors and nurses we are talking about people in policy, even the President because if he doesn’t approve health plans and policies it is a challenge.
“You need to have the right human resources at the right time the right place and at the right cost because human resources are not cheap if you want the ones that are skilled and competent, someone has to pay for it.
“If we must achieve the SDG we must take a complete look at the human resources for health both medical and non medical. I am sure you do not know that it takes about 29 staff to run a health centre, that is the prescribed standard but which health centre has that and who is planning for it” he said.
A 2016 statistics by the World Health Organisation showed that over 300,000 women die annually due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth while about 5.9million children die before their fifth birthday mostly from preventable causes and health professionals have a major role to play.
Wife of the President Aisha Buhari who was represented by her aide, Hajo Sani emphasised on the role of nurses in the prevention of maternal and child child care. She added that Nigeria was still in the “process of developing a roadmap for the SDGs in three emerging areas of policy, data management, institution and partnership”. She asked all institutions to outline their plans to the national framework of the SDGs if success is to be achieved.
The head of the Nursing unit of the State House Medical Centre, Matron
Jakada noted that the workshop had been put together with targeting attitudinal change in service delivery by nurses, doctors, pharmacists and all concerned to ensure the achievement of the SDGs.
