Lara Adejoro The Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has been interfacing with the Ministry of Finance on reviewing pending arrears for healthcare workers in the country. Alausa said this on Thursday, at the National Dialogue on Human Resources for Health with the theme, “Unlocking financing opportunities for human resources for health in Nigeria” in Abuja. Alausa noted that the government is aware of the challenges of the health workforce as it is not unconnected with the trend of brain drain with the resultant lack of human resources for health, and unemployment, among others.
Alausa, who was represented by the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, Dr Saad Ahmed stated, “As we all know, a giant stride taken by the government is the direct ceding of manpower issue to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare with the mandate of granting a waiver for recruitment. This is a recognition of the need to circumvent bureaucracy and a short, quick replacement and filling of the gaps as well as recruitment based on the need. “The joint committee on waiver has granted over 15 waivers to federal tertiary hospitals who have met the criteria and complied with the information templates.
The committee is relentless and their exercise is currently ongoing. “There is a deliberate effort to double admission into medical and health sciences programmes by institutions that have the capacit.