By Kazeem Akolawole
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the World that beyond infrastructure, equipment, medicines, and vaccines, healthcare needs highly skilled, motivated health workers who will continue to provide care even in the most precarious situations.
The Nigeria Country Representative, WHO, Dr Walter Kazadi Molumbo disclosed this at the launch of the Community-based Health Research, Innovative Training and Services Programme(CRISP) in Nigeria.
Molumbo said the strength of every health system reflects the capacity and adequacy of its health workforce, which are necessary to deliver quality services to address population health needs.
Nigeria has over time experienced chronic under-investment in planning, education, training, employment, and working conditions of health workers, and the mismatch between education and employment strategies in relation to health systems and population needs are contributing to continuous shortages.
According to Molumbo, “For a resilient and effective health system, Nigeria must have adequate numbers of health workers who are fit for purpose, motivated to perform, and equitably distributed especially at the PHC level to enhance equity in access to their services.
“The CRISP will tap into the existing human resources for health and bridge the skills gap at PHCs by tapping the expertise at higher levels of care. This needs to be well thought out, so as not to make the PHCs an extension of the Tertiary hospitals, but to continue to provide primary health services to meet the population’s priority health needs.
“The plan to recruit health workers and deploy them to PHC facilities across the country is very commendable. WHO Nigeria will be with you to provide technical support to the CRISP of NPHCDA to achieve its aims”.
