Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Stakeholders that meet in Abuja on Tuesday at the maiden edition of the Medical Education Summit (MES) of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), have recommended the review of the medical education curriculum in Nigerian universities.
Speaking during the summit, the President of MDCAN, Dr. Victor Makanjuola, said that deliberate innovative approaches from a wide range of stakeholders are required to make meaningful and sustainable interventions that would save medical education in Nigeria.
He added that there is increasing concern on the quality of training of medical undergraduates.
Makanjuola explained that the summit would contribute to the search for answers to key challenges facing the national medical education.
He said: “There appears to be this common perception that the general standard of tertiary education in Nigeria is at crossroads, particularly the medical education that is in a peculiar kind of crisis theat seem quite daunting when weighed against the background of unrestricted emigration of medical teachers in search of greener pastures.
“The already precarious situation has been made worse by an unpredictable academic calendar, no thanks to the incessant industrial actions by multiple university unions, outdated academic curricula, and perennial underfunding of the universities and medical colleges.
“The difficulties associated with accessing research grants domiciled within the medical colleges have added to the list of the setbacks faced by medical and other tertiary education in Nigeria.
“Deliberate innovative approaches from a wide range of stakeholders are required to make any meaningful and sustainable intervention to save medical education in Nigeria.”
In his remarks, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, who was represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Healthcare Services, Dr. Tanko Yusuf Sununu, noted that medical education is very critical to achieving universal health coverage.
While speaking in a paper titled, “Advancing Medical Competency in Graduating Medical Doctors,” Professor Eniola Erekosima, seek more funding to boost the medical sectors.
Erekosima said: “There is increasing concern on the quality of undergraduate medical training on the reduction of the level of knowledge, skills as well as professional conduct of a sizable percentage due to multiple factors.
“The politicians, the leaders have to fund the medical institutions and come up with a strategy on how to manage the situation. There are medical schools that are springing up privately and I’m not aware of how the regulation is intense over there; whether they are there for commercial purposes or to train the doctors to look after our people.”
