By CHIDINMA EWUNONU-ALUKO

The Federal Government has granted waivers in hospitals for employment of health workers to improve healthcare delivery.

The Minister of Health for State, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Thursday during an official visit to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

Alausa said that medical directors would get waivers for employment from 2024, as the Federal Ministry of Health would be setting up a waiver committee that would be in charge for all hospitals.

“The president saw the need and gave the approval for us to start it in the ministry.

“Each institution will generate the number of workers it needs, and there will be some checks and balances based on the budget.

“We expect hospitals to account for their adequate, effective healthcare delivery; we will ensure that hospitals maintain the number being given to them to recruit because there will be full transparency.

“The waiver committee will meet to address waiver requests, there won’t be any delay in the review, as the process has started now,” Alausa said.

He promised that the government and the ministry would look into the plight of UCH.

He urged the hospital to look at other sources of power supply, such as solar, to ameliorate the challenge of inadequate power supply.

Alausa enjoined UCH to consider training more health specialists who would meet the need of the present-day health sector.

“We commend UCH for efforts so far, but there is need to train more personnel to meet our future needs.

“The Federal Government wants our healthcare to move forward.

“We can’t fix all the problems at once, but the good thing is that we have a direction.

“We have a passionate president who is ready to support our health sector, hospitals, so that they can give excellent care to the citizens,” he said.

Earlier, the UCH Chief Medical Director, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, said that some special surgical procedures were being carried out in the hospital.

He listed some of the procedures as general surgeries, liver and pancreas resection, free tissue transfer, tube surgery, paediatric squint surgery and total knee and hip arthroplasty.

Otegbayo remarked that the hospital’s ambition was to attain higher standards.

“There is no doubt that we have made name as a tertiary teaching hospital in Nigeria.

“We have contributed much to the development of the country’s healthcare delivery, but we refuse to be satisfied with that,” he said.

He listed the challenges of the hospital to include incessant power cut, high cost of diesel and insufficient water supply. (NAN)

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