As part of the efforts of the federal government of Nigeria to ensure improvement in the delivery of quality healthcare services across the country, it has begun to call for improved surgical procedures. The advocacy was made by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, on September 12, 2023, at the yearly meeting of the National Institute of Health Research Global Surgery Unit (NIHR GSU), which was held in Lagos.
The National Institute of Health Research Global Surgery Unit’s (NIHR GSU) annual meeting is an international event through which researchers, leading experts, and practitioners in the global surgery field are granted a platform to discuss and devise ways for the improvement of surgical care. Represented by Dr. Jimoh Salaudeen, Director of Hospital Services at the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Pate stated that through improved surgical procedures, the health sector of Nigeria will be repositioned for more efficiency in its services.
NIHR is required to assist Nigeria towards achievement of this goal.
According to him, the National Institute of Health Research Global Surgery Unit has had various contributions in the medical sector and is the platform responsible for the facilitation of the largest partnership in surgery around the world. Therefore, the institute is highly required to assist Nigeria towards achievement of this goal. Nigeria is a member of the global organization sponsored by the United Kingdom (UK) NIHR, and has recorded many reasonable achievements under the umbrella of the global hub.
These achievements attained by Nigeria as a member of the UK NIHR were in alignment with the objectives of the institute, under the leadership of Prof. Ademuyiwa Adesoji. The Minister further assured the institute of the support of the federal government of Nigeria in discharging necessary duties. He added that the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is ensuring prioritization of research as it is essential to the facilitation of development in the healthcare sector.
UK NIHR renders support to researchers from Nigeria in their studies.
Prof. Adesoji Ademuyiwa, a Director of the NIHR GSU at College of Medicine, University of Lagos, in his statement at the meeting, described the institute as the largest funder of healthcare in the UK. He said it has also been rendering support to researchers from Nigeria in their studies. He added that the body has had involvement in cutting edge researches that have yielded achievements, and are currently being implemented for various surgery interventions across the world.
Also, Ademuyiwa expressed hopeful optimism that with necessary support from the Nigerian government and other major stakeholders, there will be a record of more improvements in the surgical sector of the health care industry. Prof. Dion Morton, co-director at NIHR and a professor of Colorectal Surgery at the University of Birmingham, said that the annual meeting is an essential platform to enable discussions on global leading researches in Nigeria and other member countries in the institute.
It is committed to funding researches in higher institutions.
He added that researching and discovering practices, and transformation of the lives of surgical patients were some of the issues that were deliberated upon through the various discussions of the meeting. Morton added that through the institute there have been conduction of studies that involved cohorts of about 20,000 patients from three continents of the world. Dr. Salihu Bakari, Director of Research and Development, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund), likewise affirmed the commitment of the agency to funding partnerships and researches in higher institutions to drive significant impacts.
Related Link
Global Surgery Unit: Website
