FG moves to correct imbalance in quantity and mix of health workers in Nigeria

Nigerian government has expressed concerns over the shortage in human resource for health. And in an effort to correct the imbalance in quantity and mix of health workers in Nigeria, Minister of Health, Christian Onyebuchi Chukwu, has inaugurated two committees.
 

The committees are on Nigerian Public Health Training Initiative and the National Steering Committee on the Nigerian Health Workforce Registry. 

Chukwu said that Human Resources for Health are the cornerstone of the health system and that no intervention can be successful in the sector without an effective workforce.

He argued that, "providing the best equipment in our health facilities without health workers with the right skills in the right quantity and mix will not produce the desired improvement in our health indices."

"Human Resources for Health is faced with myriad of challenges globally, regionally and nationally which includes inappropriate and inadequate training with curricular that are not needs-based, poor access to information and knowledge resources, inadequate numbers of skilled health workers, mal-distribution at different levels of service delivery to mention but a few."

The Health Workforce Registry, according to him, would serve as check and balance system; monitor progress towards production of required health personnel; provide real-time data on the availability of required health personnel at each level of the healthcare service delivery system as well as retention of skilled healthcare workers at all levels in an equitable manner.

In his goodwill message, World Health Organisation (WHO), Country Representative in Nigeria, Ruiz Gama Vaz, said that inadequacies in number, mix and quality of human resources for health posed greatest challenges to the health system's capacity to deliver effective and equitable health services.
He stressed that addressing health workforce shortages, competencies and productivity are critical intervention to undertake.