The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Akwa Ibom State chapter, has called for the creation of at least seven medical training institutions in the state.
NMA Chairman in the State, Professor Aniekan Peter stated this while briefing newsmen in Uyo on Tuesday.
He noted that the state is not meeting its employment quota for medical workers over the years, saying that something has to be done to urgently address the shortfall.
“If there is vacancies for 100,000 teachers in the state, I’m sure you will find them immediately, but recently the State governor, Umo Eno approved employment for 400 doctors and we couldn’t get them.
“It means that there’s something wrong somewhere.
“We were looking for 700 nurses in the first time and we couldn’t get until we relaxed some of the criteria before we were able to get the number,” he stated.
According to him, the time had come for the state government to refocus its priorities and see medical education as an empowerment.
While appreciating the governor for the approval of the Akwa Ibom State University to run a medical school, Peter said that it was not enough compared with other states of the federation like Delta that already had four training institutions.
“We appreciate the governor for the approval granted to the Akwa Ibom State University to start doing medicine and other medical courses.
“But for Akwa Ibom State, that is one over four, it’s still a failure, just 25%.
“So we thank the governor for opening the first medical school in the state, other states like Delta already have four.
“Medicine is no more a course, it’s an empowerment and any state or country that doesn’t recognize this will not get it right.
“If Akwa Ibom wants to be one of the States to be reckoned with,we must see medical education as an empowerment. We must have at least 7 medical schools in this state,”
the chairman added.
He said the State already had structures or facilities that could be converted to training institutions across the state.
Understaffing: NMA calls for establishment of medical schools in Akwa Ibom