The leadership of Nigeria has been reminded that if the nation should witness a sustainable national surgical plan, it must strive to invest in training more surgeons.
Ikechi Emenike, a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) Abia State, who stated this in Umuahia while presenting a paper titled, ‘Towards a Sustainable National Surgical Plan’ during the 14th Scientific Congress of Association of Surgeons of Nigeria (ASON), defined a national surgical plan as a healthcare recipe which ensures that every citizen receives the necessary surgical care on a sustainable basis.
He pointed out that a national surgical plan should clearly spell out how a country could harness and marshal out human, material and diplomatic resources to ensure her citizens’ access to safe, affordable and optimum quality of surgical care, when needed, on a sustainable basis.
“Every country needs a sustainable surgical plan. For this to happen in Nigeria, we must strive to invest in training more surgeons, and sustain the numerous supporting infrastructure such as quality medical facilities.
“We should also nurture a commercially viable surgical equipment industry, which will include setting up equipment manufacturing plants, training of more equipment maintenance engineers and technicians,” he said.
Emenike however, noted that these would only make meaning to the Nigerian health sector if the doctors pursue excellence in their practice.
“Hospitals and surgery would benefit more by engaging professional administrators, as elsewhere, to viably manage their operations. More efficient time management and a deliberate policy of reinvesting in facilities is the way to go. Nigerian surgical theatres in particular and hospitals in general have a lot to learn from the 5-star, sparkling clean premises of their counterparts in Europe and America,” he said.
Emenike, who was represented by the Abia Central APC zonal chairman, Okezie Abarikwu opined that through diplomatic engagement and a robust maintenance and service sector, Nigeria could, as a first step, benefit from the huge array of used medical equipment clogging the second-hand market segment in the United States of America.
“All these must go hand-in-hand with a reliable and efficient electricity system as well as boosting the overall productivity of the economy, which would guarantee higher wages and better disposable income in the country,” he said.
The Abia APC chieftain used the forum to call on Nigerians to learn from the success stories of countries such as India which is a preferred surgical care destination for many Nigerians and Nigerian medical tourists and Dubai, noting that with one $112 billion (One hundred and twelve billion US dollars) in GDP.
He revealed that Dubai could afford to sustain a surgical plan which is dependent on import of medical professionals and equipment while India, with one billion people, encourages internally sustainable surgical plan.
Paul Dick Ekwere, a professor and president of ASON, who also spoke at the event, advocated for safe anaesthesia and obstetric practice to be included in safe surgery in rural setting.
“Logical reasoning is that safe surgery in a rural setting must necessarily include safe Anesthesia and Safe Obstetric practice to positively impact the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs,” he said.
