ABUJA
The federal government has expressed concern over infiltration of community health practice by quacks, tasking the various regulatory bodies to sanitise the sector for efficient healthcare delivery to the citizenry.
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Adeleke Mamora, who said this at the flag-off of certificate and license verification exercise for community health workers in the country, reiterated the government’s commitment to supporting trained and licensed health workers.
Noting that the government of President Muhammad Buhari has zero tolerance for corruption, he warned quacks in the health sector to steer away, as according to him, those detected would face the wrath of the nation’s law.
According to the minister, “Presenting oneself without being trained, certified and licensed is one form of corruption”, which he insisted the government would not condone.
He said the federal government was not resting on its oars to ensure that the country’s health facilities were flooded with quality health personnel.
The government, the minister also said, was working to health workers were adequately motivated to deliver good and affordable health services to the citizens of Nigeria
Speaking earlier at the event, chairman, Community Health Practitioners Registration Board of Nigeria, CHPRBN,
Mr Sule Toma, said his organisation had put all necessary modalities in place to sanitise community health medicines.
One of the ways of filtering the profession, he explained was through what he referred to “Operation-show-your-certificate and license.
He explained that “community health practice revolves around promoting preventive, curative and rehabilitative health services to the people regardless of where they reside or work.”
Speaking also, the Registrar of CHPRBN, Malam Bashir Idris, explained that the vision of primary health care practice was meeting the people’s health care needs through only comprehensive promotion of good and healthy living but also protection and prevention of health-related diseases among others.
While regretting the prevalence of quacks using fake certificates and licenses to practice, Malam Idris noted that the world was facing critical health challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola and another dangerous infectious disease.
“It is a fact that community health practitioners are the closest found in communities, therefore, we can’t afford to risk with the quality of health personnel attending to over 70 percent of the citizens.
“This exercise is to ensure that only professionals are entrusted with the health care and management of the citizens in Nigeria,” he explained.
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