House working on Bills to address Nigeria’s health challenges-Dogara
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has disclosed that the House of Representatives has begun legislative processes aimed at addressing the appalling level of decay that has occurred in Nigeria’s health institutions.
In an address delivered at a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Health Institutions on several health related Bills, Hon Dogara expressed displeasure that citizens are deprived of adequate healthcare services, the institutions themselves are not well funded, while bad managerial practices are exhibited in the management of these institutions.
He added that it is the expectation of the House of Representatives that the six bills undergoing public hearing would effect the critical interventions needed to arrest the various inefficiencies and their devastating impacts on the nation’s medical services delivery occasioned by years of neglect and lack of proper legislations.
The six Bills are as follows: i. Bills for Acts to Provide Legal Framework to Establish All the Federal Medical Centres ;
ii. A Bill For An Act To Establish The Pharmaceutical Technologists And Pharmacy Technicians Regulatory Board Of Nigeria To Be Vested With The Responsibility Of Determining The Standards Of Knowledge And Skills To Be Attained By Persons Seeking To Become Pharmaceutical Technologist And Pharmacy technicians and for other related matters;
iii. A Bill For An Act To Establish The Regional Centre For Oral Health Research And Training Initiative To, Among Other Things, Be Responsible For Advising Implementing, Training Coordinating Research On Matters Of Oral Health And To Facilitate The Implementation And Coordination Of Collaborative Research And Training In Consultation With The World Health Organisation And Other National And International Allied Agencies; And For Related Matters).
Others are,
iv. A Bill For An Act To Establish The Institute Of Healthcare Management Practitioners And To Make Provisions Amongst Other Things For The Membership And Control Of The Profession Of Healthcare Management, And For Other Related Matters;
v. A Bill For An Act To Establish The Allied Dental Health Professional Council; And For Related Matters and vi. A Bill For Act To Amend The National Eye Centre Act, Cap N38, Laws Of The Federation Of Nigeria, 2004 To Empower The Centre To Acquire Property, Review The Functions Of The Centre And Provide For Standard Procedure Of Removing Members Of The Board And For Other Related Matters.
