NMA Demands Highway Ambulances

Following the death of its six members and a driver in Ekiti State, the Nigerian Medical Association has demanded from the federal and state governments the immediate provision of well-equipped functional ambulances along the major highways across the country for the purpose of immediate conveyance of injured victims of vehicular accidents to nearby hospitals.

The association has raised a N20m Educational Endowment Fund for the immediate support of the families of its members in Ekiti State who died in an auto crash along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.

NMA also resolved that a former interim Administrator of Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Dr. A. O. J. Kolajo, should “be suspended indefinitely and referred to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for further disciplinary action.”

The deceased doctors include Dr. Alex Akinyele, Secretary, NMA Ekiti Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti and Dr. Tunde Aladesanmi, General Surgeon, FTH, Ido Ekiti.

Others are Dr. O.J. Taiwo, Anatomic Pathologist, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti; Dr. J. B. Ogunseye, of the National Association of General and Government Medical and Dental Practitioners and National Secretary, Hospital Management Board, Ekiti; Dr. Olajide O., President, Association of Resident Doctors, EKSUTH; Dr. Atolani Adeniyi, Secretary, NAGGMDP, Ekiti State; and Mr. Ajibola, the NMA Ekiti driver.

The NMA’s positions were contained in a communiqué signed by its newly elected President and professor of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Mike Ogirima, and Secretary-General, Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, issued at the end of its 56th Annual General Conference and Annual Delegates Meeting held in Sokoto, with the theme, “Doctors in administrative positions in a democratic dispensation” on Sunday in Abuja.

According to the communiqué, the AGC/ADM urged the federal and state governments of Nigeria “to urgently provide and station well equipped functional ambulances along the major highways for the purpose of immediate conveyance of injured victims of vehicular accidents to nearby hospitals.”

“Furthermore, the federal and state governments should commence immediate rehabilitation of roads with proper and appropriate road signage on the major highways across the country”, the NMA suggested.

The association observed that the operationalisation of the National Health Act 2014 was long overdue and urged government to expedite action on putting into practice the provisions of the act.

The NMA applauded the National Council on Health for the adoption of the universal health coverage through the National Health Insurance Scheme.

 

Credit : Punch

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