The
National President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Mr. Olumide
Akintayo, has said that the office of the Surgeon-General is not
relevant to the country.
Akintayo, in a statement on Tuesday,
said recent calls by some medical associations for the establishment of
the office of a Surgeon-General whose responsibility would be to
independently assess the medical fitness of public and political office
holders, would amount to a waste of resources.
According to him, by the basic tenets of
medical training, any registered medical practitioner could undertake
the responsibility of ascertaining the medical fitness of individuals.
Akintayo stated, “The information
provided on the need for the post of the Surgeon-General cannot be a
compelling factor to waste scarce public funds on ego trip.
“The office of the Surgeon-General, in
whatever nomenclature, will mean an unnecessary duplication of offices
and functions which are presently being articulated and undertaken by
the office of the Minister of Health and the Minister of State for
Health, with an array of directors, deputy directors and assistants.”
The association charged the National
Assembly to resist any call or pressure from some professional groups
that may want to see the position backed by law; adding that the office
would only cause disharmony in the health sector.
He said, “The health sector has suffered
from avoidable entropy because of ill-concerned policies and statutes
over time. It is in the collective interest of the Nigerian people that
the National Assembly ignores calls geared towards an unnecessary
office.
“Our nation needs laws that can truly
impact by ameliorating the burdens of our depressed citizenry and not
statutes that intensify conflict potentials in a perennially
tension-soaked sector, to the detriment of the public.”
The PSN also called on the Federal Government to address the grievances of health workers on some professional matters.
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