From Kemi Yesufu and Okwe Obi, Abuja
Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has vowed to flush out quacks parading as professionals in the health sector.
The minister said ridding the healthcare delivery system of quacks will go a long way in improving the quality of services provided patients across the country.
Adewole spoke when the Association of Health Records Practitioners of Nigeria (AHRPN) paid him a visit to seek support for a campaign tagged: Operation Stop Quackery in Health Records Practice.”
The minister also urged members of AHRPN to work within the dictates of ethics of the records keeping profession.
Said he: “I support your campaign. It should not only be a one-day campaign because you won’t kick quacks out of your profession at once. The campaign must be a continuous one.
“We must deal with quacks in the health record keeping profession because we cannot function without you. You play a crucial role.”
On his part, president of the association, Boniface Nwani, appealed to the minister to ensure that the Federal Government recruited only trained, registered, health records keepers in the country’s health institutions.
According to him, “when people do not know the importance of our work, they won’t know when they are not getting the right services. This is why we are creating awareness. We are not backing down on the campaign until we achieve success.
“Some people in our health institutions are not properly trained to do the job they have been recruited to do and the current situation is giving our profession a bad name. We are not comfortable with this.
“We also seek the support, collaboration and partnership of the Ministry of Health in the enforcement of legal provisions for health records keeping, maintenance of standards and creation of awareness.
“We are calling on relevant agencies which need the services of our trained personnel to contact us, so we can also play our role.”