The next level is to set up a very good tertiary hospital. When we run that one well, well equipped, it will give birth to a College of Medicine. With what we have in mind and what we are going to bring in, we will have the best Teaching Hospital owned by a state government”, he stated.

He said with AKSUTH the state was set to bridge the gap between the already existing ultra-modern secondary and quaternary medical facilities in the state, while reaffirming his administration’s resolve to maintain the status quo of the health workers in the state being the highest paid nationwide.

Governor Emmanuel commended the sacrifice of medical practitioners in the state government fight against COVID-19 and congratulated the new NMA leadership in the state on their emergence and urged them to use the pivotal position of the NMA in the medical field to support state government’s drive towards a holistic development of the healthcare sector, by liaising with the various sister bodies to ensure best practices in by practitioners in the sub-sectors.

He stressed that lack of good surgery recovery plan, bedside manners, laboratory services and other complementary services, can render the medical practice counterproductive.

In his words, “Please let’s look at medical profession as a total approach…. As NMA you should have a way of controlling other ancillary services. Where I am suffering very much now, as a governor, is bedside manners with recovering patients. When you finish as the Doctor it is not all over.

The recovery of that patient at times is as serious as what you did, especially in the theatre. You only go on ward rounds, may be in the morning or evening, you don’t know what happens to those people, but I’m getting a whole lot of reports of terrible bedside manners of nurses and other medical workers. Where I’m also having a whole lot of issues is all these labs being set up and we are going to clampdown on them very soon”.

Speaking earlier, the leader of the delegation and Chairman Akwa Ibom State chapter of the NMA, Dr. Ime Udoh, thanked Governor Emmanuel for being the first Chief Executive to grant the Association audience in the state and lauded his administration’s passionate attention to healthcare.

He said the Governor’s approval Consolidated Medical Salary Scale, CONMESS, which places workers in the state government employ as highest paid in the country, the prowess brought to bear in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, the AKSUTH initiative and other ventures in the health sector were indicative the government’s acknowledgement of health as the substratum on which is created, adding that the government has not only prevented capital flight from the state, but has, through the Jubilee Syringe Factory, attract medical tourism to the state.

Dr Udoh used the opportunity of the visit to inform the Governor of the 2021 Physicians Week, scheduled to hold in the state in October.

Vanguard