Minister Of Health To Prioritize Research And Health-care Development

Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate encourage Nigerian Government to prioritize research and healthcare development. 

The Nigerian government, led by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, has affirmed its commitment to prioritising research as a cornerstone for development in the healthcare industry. This position was disclosed by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, who served as Chairman at the Opening Ceremony of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Global Surgery Unit (GSU) Annual Prioritisation Meeting on Tuesday, September 12, 2023.

While addressing the gathering, Professor Pate who was represented by Dr. Jimoh Salau, Director of Health Services, expressed government’s delight in the collaborative efforts of NIHR with some of the tertiary health institutions in Nigeria to boost best practices in healthcare service delivery. He noted with joy, that Nigeria as a member of the global initiative has performed credibly well under the leadership of Professor Adesoji Ademuyiwa of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

With a warm welcome to all and an invitation to experience the beauty of Lagos, Nigeria, the Minister declared the NIHR GSU Annual Prioritisation Meeting open and wished participants fruitful deliberations.

Showering more encomiums on the Nigeria Hub of NIHR GSU, the Co-Director, NIHR Global Surgery Unit, Professor Dion Morton affirmed that the Hub has indeed exemplified the drive of expanding networks being championed by the Unit. He reeled out the incomparable achievements of the Nigeria Hub ranging from creating a network of over thirty (30) hospitals across the country; recruitment of two hundred thousand (200,000) patients to curable studies; recruitment of about twenty-five thousand (25,000) patients from three (3) continents into interventional practice-changing trials etc. all within five (5) years.

Handing other hubs their flowers as well, Professor Morton appreciated GSU Collaborators across the world for collectively taking the Unit to great heights. This he asserted has set the NIHR Global Surgery Unit apart as a voice for surgery, with thirty thousand (30,000) surgeons across a hundred and twenty (120) countries, working with the unity of purpose to benefit patients globally.

Indeed, for a diverse community of experts working together to raise awareness about access to global surgical care, collaborating with the NHIR Global Surgical Unit has been a worthy endeavour in alignment with the vision of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) to position itself at the vanguard of knowledge.

Delivering a goodwill message on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Professor Folasade T. Ogunsola, OON, FAS, the Deputy Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), Professor Osaretin Ebuehi, shared the University’s drive to explore and attract more collaborations and partnerships, to facilitate the conduct of cutting-edge multidisciplinary researches that will improve the quality of life.

He extended the Vice-Chancellor’s warm regards to the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery for the continued relationship with the Nigeria Hub over the years. Similarly, he expressed Professor Ogunsola’s appreciation of the efforts put into the Hub by Professor Adesoji Ademuyiwa, Director, Nigeria Hub, NIHR Global Surgery Unit, who has distinguished himself as a worthy ambassador of the University and Nigeria.

The Vice-Chancellor recognised also, the efforts of all members of the Hub in recording notable strides and encouraged them not to relent in their verve to improve surgical outcomes in collaboration with other GSU Hubs.

She acknowledged the NIHR Global Surgery Unit and other GSU Hubs across the globe, sponsors, volunteers and all those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the NIHR GSU Annual Prioritisation Meeting, Nigeria 2023 a reality. The Vice-Chancellor wished them impactful deliberations and expressed her hope that the outcome of the meeting would spore all stakeholders to reduce the scourge of surgical deaths in communities across the world.

The convener, Professor of Surgery (Paediatric and Surgical Epidemiology) in the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), Professor Adesoji Ademuyiwa, who is also the Head of the Paediatric Surgery Unit, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and Director, Nigeria Hub, took the gathering on a brief verbal tour of the antecedents of the NIHR GUS Annual Prioritisation Meeting and that of the Nigeria Hub.

He averred that the Annual Prioritisation Meeting was being hosted by the Nigeria Hub for the first time, as the first annual meeting was held in Birmingham, the second was in Johannesburg, and the third in Rwanda. He added that Ghana has hosted the meeting twice and India, once.

Professor Ademuyiwa intimated the gathering that through funding from NIHR, the Nigeria Hub of the GSU has been involved in cutting-edge research, placing the hub at a vantage point to challenge some of the guidelines at high levels with evidence. He elaborated that the hub started with observational studies, that have actually impacted and generated research questions, and was able to progress to randomised control trials with interventions within 5 years.

With lofty hopes for the future, Professor Adesoji Ademuyiwa expressed the wish of the Nigeria Hub to take surgical care further as the different hubs and spokes of the Global Surgery Unit continue to collaborate and share knowledge.

“Sing the Gospel of Your Work”

The two-day meeting addressed issues such as expansion of the Unit, the need for collaborators to rise to the challenge and make the best of the opportunities therein. Implementation and dynamics of ongoing and upcoming research and clinical trial projects were also discussed.

The event, through panel discussions, explored: avenues of translating research into policy; possibilities that abound in capacity building; health economics research; planning research for impact in terms of workforce, emergency care, complex trials, drug trials and future research themes; as well as approaches to building effective partnerships with regulators and funders.

In one of the panel discussions, Professor of Surgery at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), who is also the immediate past Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Professor Chris Bode, encouraged medical professionals to practice forging connections and building relationships outside their immediate network. He stated that one could be the overall best in surgical care but because they remain in their small network, only a few others outside their network will know of their prowess. He advised health professionals saying: “Sing the gospel of your work, take first steps in making connections with phone calls”. According to Professor Chris Bode, emails seldom get across to people who are in positions to render various forms of help, hence medical professionals must be ready to step out of their comfort zones and build relationships that get their work the desired results.

Co-Director, NIHR, Global Surgery Unit, Professor Stephen Tabiri, in furtherance to the point made by Professor Bode, cited instances where building relationships had bridged the gap in achieving some goals in his GSU Hub, Ghana.

Speaking on the aspects of capacity building that requires re-strategizing, Sister Sangeetha Samuel, Lead, Nurses Research, India Hub, NIHR Global Surgery Unit, asserted the need for the training modules to be tweaked to enable training of nurses in specialised fields, such that nurses can be professionals in specific fields of surgery rather being trained to be easily moved from one surgical unit to another. She posited that a move will strengthen the competency of surgical teams and ensure optimal outcomes in surgical care.

On the matter of funding, Director of Research and Development, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Dr. Salihu Bakari declared the readiness of the Trust Fund to collaborate in funding quality research that is impactful to society and bridge the gap between Nigeria and the world.

With reference to building effective partnerships with regulators and funders, representatives of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC), disclosed that the two (2) Nigerian regulatory bodies recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will improve and hasten the process of application for approval of clinical trials. This, in part, entails the ability to now make simultaneous applications for approval to be 2 bodies.

The National Institute of Health Research Global Surgery Unit (NIHR GSU) is the largest funding body in the United Kingdom with over seven years of notable growth and contribution to quality of surgical care. The Unit’s Annual Prioritisation Meeting brings together leading experts, researchers, and practitioners in the field of global surgery from around the world. This year, 2023, over one hundred representatives from all the GSU Hubs from thirteen (13) countries were in attendance.

MySchoolNews reporting.