By Our Reporter
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Iziaq Salako, has disclosed that the Ministry will focus on ensuring that patients get topnotch services when they visit hospitals in Nigeria.
Responding to questions from journalists in Abuja, yesterday, the Minister insisted the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led- government will stop at nothing to ensure that there is improved quality of care in hospitals in Nigeria.
He charged the media to be ready for a robust engagement because, according to him: “In the ministry, we see health journalists as partners in progress and people we depend on seriously to disseminate our policy statements and programs and also to inform Nigerians.
“Of course, we also depend on you for feedbacks because a lot of times issues that arise from our hospitals, sometimes are first brought to our notice by the media. This means that in the health sector, you are not just the Fourth Estate of the realm, you are an important part of the health sector.”
Speaking on his priority areas as the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Salako said: “The first thing I am going to hold to is to have a quality of care in our hospitals and how to improve the experience of patience when they visit the hospitals.
“This is so important because the whole essence of everything we do including the policies is targeted at improving the health of Nigerians.
“And if Nigerians visit our hospitals and do not get topnotch services, no good experience, then all the input that we are putting in the health sector can be seen as not well directed or focused in achieving the target.
“This is because at the end of it all, sometimes when you go to the hospital and the doctor is not able to help you directly may be because of your nature of illness, you will still come out happy feeling that these people have treated me as a human and have attended to me with a lot of curtesy and regard, that is very important.”
He noted that the Ministry will no more focuse on output by heads of tertiary hospitals, but that attention will be given to outcome from the projects executed by the tertiary hospitals.
“We are not going to be emphasizing on output, but rather we will be focusing on outcome of the project. The media is very important to achieve that.
“So, our heads of institutions are not going to be evaluated on the basis of physical infrastructure, they are going to be evaluated on the basis of the impact they are able to make with respect to those physical infrastructure. That will be our priority.
“Another area of priority that I will want to media to support is emphasis prevention in our approach to healthcare. That is tied to immunization.,” he noted.
While soliciting the support of journalists in the country, the Minister lamented that the level of awareness in terms of health issues, prevention and improving health seeking behaviour among Nigerians is not yet optimal.
“Journalists have important role to play on that to continue to work to improve the level of awareness among our people. Research has consistently shown that when health literacy is high, then health seeking behaviour is better and the health indicators are also better.,” the Minister reiterated.
