Mocks CMDs for allowing traditional Medicine Practitioners overtake them In Research Driven Programmes.
Nigeria tertiary health institutions, particularly university teaching hospitals, have been asked to give priority to medical research instead of waiting for emergency situations like the COVID-19 pandemic to drive action.
Chairman of the House Committee on Health Institutions, Patrick Umoh, made this known during the budget defence session of Federal University Teaching Hospitals, Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres
Umoh, who criticised the Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of teaching hospitals for allocating less than one per cent of their budgets to research, decried the attitude of medical doctors in tertiary health institutions to research programmes, noting that they have abandoned their core mandate and assumed the roles of general hospitals.
The committee chairman wondered why most Chief Medical Directors never raise issues of research funding during budget preparation, but consistently call for infrastructure funding, mockingly telling the doctors that traditional medicine practitioners appear more serious about research programmes than teaching hospitals.
Responding on behalf of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors, the Secretary of the Committee and Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Prof. Pokop Bupwatda, explained that only about one per cent of teaching hospitals’ budgets is earmarked for research, adding that the research budget line is often removed during the budgeting process.
Prof. Bupwatda told lawmakers that inadequate funding has left teaching hospitals without the needed manpower, appealing for improved budgetary allocation to allow for adequate staff welfare towards curbing the “japa syndrome” bedevilling the sector.
The Chief Medical Director, maintained that despite the challenges faced, existing personnel have continued to deliver quality healthcare services deserving commendation, expressing concern that public discourse often focuses on isolated shortcomings in the sector rather than the progress made.
On the 2025 budget performance, the CMD said only about 30 per cent of the total allocation to federal tertiary health institutions has been released, identifying power supply as a major challenge; a situation, he said has seen hospitals spend huge sums on electricity bills due to the need for constant power to operate critical equipment and provide patient care.
He explained that federal hospitals currently operate under Band A electricity tariffs, placing additional financial strain on them, alongside the cost of running generators but welcomed the proposal to provide solar mini-grids for teaching hospitals and federal medical centres, describing proposal as a positive development
(Editor: Ada Ononye)
