Chioma Umeha

Chioma Umeha Leaders in the health sector have been tasked to ensure all health institutions’ drugs procurement system was safeguarded to guarantee quality. Dr Babatunde Ipaye, Ogun State Commissioner for Health made the call at a Leadership Retreat and Health Summit organised by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State Chapter on Monday in Lagos. Ipaye explained,   whatever system is adopted will eventually translate to what the patients will consume. “The way we procure drugs must be streamlined to ensure technical and financial efficiency so that the quality is guaranteed and all the logistic outlines from the point of procurement. “Also, we must procure where possible, from the manufacturers and where the manufacturers are not in the country, we must procure from distributors or sales agents that have got manufacturer’s authorisation. “This will allow everybody takes drugs and sell to the hospitals. “This will not allow room for smart businessmen to bri

Olusegun Abisoye The Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF)–(Doctors without borders) on Friday, handed over an ‘observation bay’ for Lassa Fever patients to the Federal Teaching Hospital (FETHA) Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. The MSF Project Coordinator in Ebonyi, Miss Julia Hills, said that the facility was provided to reduce the infection rate of disease especially among the health workers. Hills noted that the observation bay would assist in reducing the high rate health workers contract the disease and other haemorrhagic fever when providing care to suspected patients. “It has facilities that will ensure thorough observation of suspected patients and provide the needed isolation. “The facility would also assist health workers to provide adequate care and required services to suspected Lassa fever patients,” she said. She said that the MSF was concerned over the fatality rate of the disease in the state especially among health workers in the hospital. “We are providing two

Chioma Umeha Prof. Isaac Adewole, the Minister of Health, during the weekend disclosed plans by the Federal government to duplicate the new state-of–the-art Cancer Center at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) across other zones of the country. DAILY INDEPENDENT learnt that the LUTH’s world- class Cancer centre which has capacity to offer chemotherapy, radiation and surgery as most cancer cases are always presented late is billed to commence operation in the first quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, Adewole who was on an assessment tour of the facility in Lagos said 4,000 out of the 10,000 Primary Health Care Centers the government promised to regenerate have been delivered. Speaking shortly after the tour, Adewole explained that government invested in the Center to make certain more Nigerians have access to cancer treatment in the country for better outcome. “We noticed that treatment is beyond the modalities that we offer.   Our ambition is to reproduce it outside t

Chioma Umeha Barely nine months after the last industrial strike that grounded nationwide health care delivery with undesirable consequences, the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) has again given the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to meet its welfare demands or it embarks on fresh action from January 31. In a letter to Dr. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, JOHESU said it had decided to embark on this strike after the refusal of the government to address its demand since the suspension of the industrial action by the union since May 30, 2018. JOHESU is specifically demanding for the implementation of the adjusted Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS), the payment of specialist allowances to deserving health professionals, payment of arrears of the skipping of CONHESS 10, increase of age of health workers from 60 to 65 years and the review of the composition of the Boards of Federal Health Institutions (FHIs). JOHESU members include f

Chioma Umeha To curb high incidence of unintended pregnancies, experts have called for a boost in the use of Long Acting And Permanent Methods (LAPMs) of Family Planning, instead of condoms and injectables in Lagos State. The call came at the background of the release of the round 5 of the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020) survey, a family planning indicator in a press briefing, organised weekend by Pathfinder International for members Media Advocacy Working Group (MAWG) in Lagos. Announcing the outcome of the survey for Lagos state in 2018, was Dr. Funmilola Olaolorun of Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan-Nigeria who said that though   the state improved on its uptake of all methods of Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR), the use of LAPM dropped. Long Acting And Permanent Methods (LAPMs) of family planning or reversible contraception, such as intrauterine devices and implants, and permanent methods (female a

 Chioma Umeha  It is no secret that Nigerian youths are increasingly turning from street drugs to prescription drugs for recreation or to enhance academic performance. To curb the ugly trend, experts and stakeholders, especially the pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria have advocated for pharmacists to be given full control of drug distribution and use in the country. This way, pharmacists claim they would have increased     vigilance over supply of medicines, either on prescription or over the counter to prevent it from ending up in the black market and being abused or misused. According to them, being in full control of medicines would also guarantee a strong drug safety and security programme which they say is the foundation of a robust    national ethos for any country. In addition to this, pharmacists are demanding for a boost in local production of essential medicines and drug security in the country. Corroborating these views were Dr. Okey Akpa, Chairman, Pharmaceut

•Says They’re Benign Tumours, Not Cancers Chioma Umeha Dr. Edmond Edi-Osagie, Consultant Gynaecologist, Fertility Specialist and Advanced Laparoscopic Surgeon based in Manchester, UK, in this interview with CHIOMA UMEHA, speaks on why he is setting up a fertility and endoscopic surgery service in Lekki, Lagos. Fibroid is an issue that is of interest to many women of reproductive age especially here in Nigeria. What are fibroids? Thank you for that very pertinent question in our contest. Fibroids are probably the most common benign condition that women, particularly African women, experience. Fibroids are actually benign tumors or masses of the womb that occur in women and the way to think about fibroids is to think about benign breast lumps. This is because fibroids are the womb’s equivalent of benign lumps that occur in the breasts. They are benign, originate from muscle and fibrous tissue and are particularly common in African women. We do not know how many African

Chioma Umeha Research has shown that population size is vital to the growth of any nation and has a direct impact on other areas of development, particularly on human resources. Increasingly, there have been global calls for countries to focus on the development of human capital, including provision of adequate infrastructure, housing, health and educational facilities. Other areas are potable water, food, job creation and the management of key natural resources. Specifically, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recently expressed worry over increase in the number of world population and called for attention in view of the available data on population explosion, saying it is anti-development. Responding to the global call, experts at the fifth biennial Nigeria Family Planning Conference (NFPC2018) recently called for increased investment in family planning, saying that it is a positive force to improve national planning and development. They made the demand in

Chioma Umeha Access Bank PLC says it is partnering Hygeia HMO to provide financing options to enable women receive quality healthcare services. The partnership aims to ensure increased access to IVF treatments with 30 per cent cash back on unsuccessful procedures, according to a statement from Abdul Imoyo, Head, Media Relations of Access Bank, made available to DAILY INDEPENDENT on Tuesday in Lagos. This collaboration is supported by the Access Bank’s “W” Initiative flagship product – Maternal Health Service Support (MHSS) designed to help families overcome financial challenges and support them in their quest for parenthood and healthcare. MHSS is a financing scheme which supports local and international treatments, including fertility treatments, natal support and other specialised procedures such as hysterectomy (uterus removal), myomectomy (fibroid removal), dental, bariatric, orthopaedic treatments. Mr. Victor Etuokwu, the Executive Director, Personal Banking Divi

•Say No To Violence And Save Them - UNICEF  Chioma Umeha  Currently, Nigeria is tenth in the list of worldwide hungriest nations, despite the global target to end hunger by 2030. Analysts say they are seriously worried that hundreds of Nigerians, especially in the north-eastern part of Nigeria are experiencing chronic hunger and the threat of famine. Conflict, recurring severe drought, and high food prices are to blame. Unfortunately, 35 million Nigerian children aged five and below in the north-eastern part are today affected by Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). The insurgency and activities of Boko Haram within the region have severely worsened the levels of malnutrition. Recent statistics from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in the region has crossed the threshold for ‘serious.’ The World Health Organisation (WHO) classification for ‘serious’ depicts levels of combined moderate and acute malnutrition excee