By Hassan Zaggi
The Federal Government has been called upon to strengthen and improve the capacity and numbers of healthcare workforce otherwise known as human resources for health.
This is contained in a communique issued at the end of the National COVID-19 Summit which took place on December 6-7 in Abuja, with the theme: Pushing through the Last Mile to End the Pandemic and Build Back Better.
- The Summit, however, called for the sustenance of the coordination structure under the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) in line with global best practice considering the current war still ongoing against the COVID-19 pandemic.
It would be recalled that the tenure of the PSC officially expired in December last.
The Summit also advised the government to, in view of the global experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic, consider building a structure for the management of national bio-security .
The Summit also said: “Considering the impact of COVID-19 on developing economies, which has worsened their debt situation, Nigeria should galvanise other nations to call for debt relief so that resources could be channelled towards building the national bio-security and improve access to Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“The current level of engagement with the organised private sector in strengthening the health sector should be encouraged and sustained.
“The “One Health” Strategy and the requirements under the International Health Regulation should be pursued vigorously.
“Nigeria should galvanise the support of African countries in the collaborative process to end COVID-19 pandemic on the continent and build back stronger public health systems; for impact measurement and effective evaluation of the national response, the collaboration between national and sub-national entities should be strengthened and the capacity and numbers of human resources for health should be improved and strengthened.”
The Summit further called for improved partnership on Primary health care delivery and vaccination uptake and that government should strengthen the collaboration between the national and sub-national entities and also agreed that going forward, the resolutions should be measurable with timelines to track and report on progress on implementation.
The Summit communique was signed by representatives of various interest groups in the health sector including the Coordinator Africa Health Budget, Dr. Aminu Magashi, who represented the coalition of CSOs; Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Dr. Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, who represented the National Assembly; Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman, Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha and many others.
