The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Rivers State Branch, has known as on Governor Siminalayi Fubara to recruit more healthcare workers to match investments in well being infrastructure, saying extra personnel are wanted to enhance service supply throughout the state.
The chairperson of the affiliation, Dr. Ureh Oparaodu, made the decision whereas talking with journalists in Port Harcourt throughout actions marking the 2026 Physicians’ Week, the place she counseled the governor for supporting the well being sector, growing medical doctors’ salaries and increasing healthcare services.
Oparaodu mentioned the institution of more well being centres and investments in well being infrastructure has helped enhance entry to healthcare however harassed that services want sufficient employees to operate successfully.
Speaking on the zonal hospital in Omoku, she mentioned the ability would enhance entry to secondary healthcare for residents of the Orashi area.
“Because the more infrastructures you put in place, the more employment of healthcare workers, not just doctors, but also those that make the healthcare system complete.”
The NMA chairperson additionally mentioned improved remuneration had made the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, RSUTH, more engaging to medical doctors searching for employment, together with medical professionals from different states.
However, when requested to present figures exhibiting whether or not the rise in salaries had lowered the variety of medical doctors leaving Rivers State, Oparaodu mentioned she couldn’t present precise statistics to help the declare.
“It is actually difficult to give an exact statistic because basically as clinicians, we work with exact figures,” she mentioned.
She added that the instructing hospital was attracting curiosity from medical doctors outdoors the state due to its improved remuneration.
“So, we have a lot of people that are coming from other states that also want to also be employed in the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital because of that,” she mentioned.
On considerations about unqualified medical practitioners, popularly referred to as quacks, Oparaodu mentioned the NMA has an anti-quackery committee that works with the Rivers State Ministry of Health to establish and examine suspected instances.
She defined that the affiliation additionally acts on complaints from members of the general public about questionable healthcare services and practitioners whose skilled {qualifications} required verification.
“So, once we get that complaint, we now point our focus in that direction to confirm, is there really a doctor in that place?” she mentioned.
Oparaodu acknowledged that medical quackery stays an issue as a result of members of the general public won’t have the option to distinguish certified medical doctors from unqualified practitioners.
She mentioned public schooling is subsequently an vital a part of the affiliation’s efforts to deal with the issue.
“One of the things that Nigerian Medical Association is also doing is basically we have a time on Thursdays and also on Sundays where we educate the masses on what to look out for, where to go to, the signs that you should actually take in place,” she mentioned.
The affiliation’s name for improved staffing fashioned a part of its wider considerations about the way forward for medical apply in Nigeria, together with medical doctors’ welfare, burnout, office security and migration.
In her deal with through the opening ceremony of the Physicians’ Week, Oparaodu harassed the necessity for medical doctors to take their well being critically and work in environments that permit them to present high quality care with out sacrificing their very own well-being.
She additionally known as for the accountable adoption of synthetic intelligence, telemedicine and different digital well being applied sciences, stressing the necessity to defend affected person confidentiality and keep moral requirements in medical apply.
As a part of the week’s actions, the affiliation plans to train main faculty pupils primary life-support expertise, present free medical and surgical companies and organise coaching and mentoring for youthful medical doctors in Rivers State.
