The Chairman of the Nigerian Health Commissioners’ Forum, Dr. Banji Filani, has expressed the body’s readiness to combat brain drain in the country’s health sector to improve the quality of healthcare delivery.
Filani, the Ekiti State Commissioner for Health said, “The current wave of brain drain is much higher than at any other time in the country’s history. Unlike in the past, more nurses are leaving in droves, with attendant consequences on the quality of service delivery in our primary healthcare centres.”
He spoke in a statement by the Permanent Secretary, Ekiti State Ministry of Health, Mr. Akinjide Akinleye, titled, “Fayemi’s appointee, Filani, emerges Chairman, Health Commissioners’ Forum.”
Filani said the new position would further give him the opportunity “to work hard and synergise with other states to tackle brain drain, mortality rate and promote health security in all spheres.”
He urged his colleagues to prepare ahead of 2023 as the nation prepared to elect a new set of leaders, saying, “The predisposition of new leaders to health and healthcare had implications on how health would be financed.”
The chairman said he would guide the forum to leverage the growing sense among development partners to engage more at the sub-national levels, given the limited traction in their previous national-level strategies, and strive to achieve public health security.
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