The Joint Health Sector Unions on Tuesday insisted that the headship of public hospitals in the country should not be the exclusive right of medical doctors.

They also faulted the claims by the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, and the Nigerian Medical Association that their recent protest in which they called for the minister's sack was political and amounted to blackmail.

According to them, their agitation is in line with industrial relations practices worldwide.

But Chukwu, while reacting to the health workers' demand in an interview with our correspondent, said medical doctors would continue to head hospitals becauseit would not be right to impose other professionals on physicians.

He said, "The Chief Justice of Nigeria is a lawyer; and the CJN is both the administrator and the technical expert asfar as the judiciary is concerned. So, why should it be different in medicine? The hospital is the only place that is totally the doctor's territory. Every other personthere is in support system."

But the joint workers' union, in a statement jointly signed by its chairman, Dr. Ayuba Wabba, and Secretary, Mr. Yussuf Badmus, on Tuesday, stated that hospital administration should not be the exclusive right of medical doctors alone.

JOHESU comprises the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions, Nigeria Union of Pharmacists, Medical Technologist and Professions Allied to Medicine and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions.

JOHESU stated, "A major grouse of our coalition is the continued exclusive role of medical practitioners as the chief executive of hospitals. We have argued in line with international best practices that the skills required for that administrative office are quite distinct from the clinical skills of a medical doctor.

"The facts on ground prove that they have grossly mismanaged these institutions because they do not possess the administrative training and experience required for the office. International best practices recommend professionally-certified and experienced health service/hospital administrators to manage the institutions.

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Let's have your views on this crucial issue troubling the nigerian health sector in recent times

The headship of hospitals should not be the exclusive right of medical doctors.Administration is totally different from medicine and surgery.Some doctors by experience go on to become good administrators but to automatically make the most senior the head is not right.
That's why i like developed countries.They know how to set up their structures.There is even a course called Hospital Administration and you don't have to be a medical doctor to study it.

You know hospital is all about patient's care. Every other thing is secondary. Among the health professionals only doctors pass through all the health departments in the course of training

NO

Another scam

Should atheist head a church?

Whan you study medicine you become a doctor,
Health and hospital managent, you manage the hospital.
The two professions differs.

Doctors are not administrators, but some doctors can be good administrator, running a hospital has nothing to do being a doctor, nurse or pharmacist infact there is an MBA Hospital Administration mainly for running a hospital which anyone with interest in hospital running can enrol.

Medical doctors should not be handling senior public health/institutional roles, a lot of times they don't grasp the depth of administrative and strategic aspects of the roles.

Medical Doctors should be left in technical and advisory roles; public health systems should be left to accomplished public health experts who understand the economics, admin, and the science behind these public health systems.

I had this discussion with a Ghanaian friend. Health management is not exclusive to medical doctors. In fact, nowadays, the role of doctors is narrowing down to exclusive surgeries. Every other aspect can be handled by nurses, midwives and others. Serious doctors will want to be better in their field and not dabble into admin.
Lets look at it from the MPH, Master of Public Health degree. That is a more admin related course, and the requirements is for anyone who has done medical sciences. That in itself is a subtle admission that medical administration is not solely for medical doctors.

Any good administrator can run any institution.

Medicine is under the Health sector...others include dentistry,pharmacy,optometry,nursing,medical lab science....if medicine is now dominating others makes it wrong...the position should be shared equally because Med.docs can't even work independent of other medical professions

I don't know why doctors are feeling so important, very soon doctors work is about to be taken by computers, unless you are a surgeon.

A lot of Nigerian doctors have converted to nurses abroad because there are less need for doctors and more need for nurses

I agree with Thorpido. This is an admnistration issue and should be managed by someone who's good in administration. A doctor being thye administrative head of a hospital is not advisable as he doesn't have any background in management. Though it's better to hire an administrator who's familiar with the idiosyncrasies of hospitals to head it.

ebamma: Should atheist head a church?

simple but right on the money point made here ,having said that it depends on what health institution it is, if it is one that deals with core medical areas like nursing, maternity, children’s health etc then preferably a doctor or someone who is medically inclined should head it but if it is policy making , strategic leadership etc then perhaps the person need not be medically inclined .

any individual with decades of experience in the medical profession should be allowed to head health institutions irrespective of the field so long has their field are affiliated to health and the individual has excelled and has got track record. this particular issue, political in nature is the problem troubling the medical sector...they should try and give every other personnel their breathing space...in the EGINEERING SECTOR, you hardly find this problem rearing its ugly head...everyone is give their role to play effectively, here there is no need for administrators

Surgeries and Management are two different things....

Unless a Doc has a hospital management degree, why should he head a hospital?

@OP. Non docs shud be able to head health institution if only he is qualified. MBA in health care mgt or related field. Then at least some resonable years of experience working in similar environment.

Doctors are excellent managers of the human body and not same compared with doing administrative functions.

Heading health institiution equals assuming a position which requires 80% administrative knowledge/experience and 20% medical knowledge.

Going back to history, health institiutions were not basically headed by Medical Doctors, and lot of success were recorded at these period.
I am not of the opinion that the leadership should be 'diverted' to the administrators/non medics in the health institiution, but they should be given the right to contest for such leadership position as many of them know the in & out of 'planning' and management in an health institiution.

Afam4eva: I agree with Thorpido. This is an admnistration issue and should be managed by someone who's good in administration. A doctor being thye administrative head of a hospital is not advisable as he doesn't have any background in management. Though it's better to hire an administrator who's familiar with the idiosyncrasies of hospitals to head it.

I also agree

thorpido: The headship of hospitals should not be the exclusive right of medical doctors.Administration is totally different from medicine and surgery.Some doctors by experience go on to become good administrators but to automatically make the most senior the head is not right.
That's why i like developed countries.They know how to set up their structures.There is even a course called Hospital Administration and you don't have to be a medical doctor to study it.

Ma broda u spoke well and I do agree with something u said.
@ OP, only a non health personnel would ask this. There is something called health management, hospital management, etc. which sadly does not exist in Nigeria. These are people that should run hospitals and health care instituitions...I would have liked to say more but would stop here.

All hospitals have a Director of Admin who heads d admin dept and in some cases is as powerful if not more powerful than d CMD. There is no need for the CMD to be a certified adminstrator in this current structure as it will merely duplicate the roles. If a nurse for example heads d hospital,what title will they bear? Chief Nursing Officer? This fight is pure politics in my opinion.

I think the JSU want a fair share in the headship of hospitals. Anyone who is the head of a hospital has authority over the other staff and we all know what that means. IMO, Medical Doctors should not be the only professionals to head hospitals. This is because there are other qualified professionals that could be in charge of such hospitals (Nurses, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Nurses, Pharmacists, etc.) Suffice it to know that this has been a battle between the Medical Doctors and other Health Professionals. It's been said that the Doctors use their position to suppress the others which I think isn't fair.

[quote author=chioma134]u nid 2 be in a teachin hospital to c d paucity of knowledge and deficit in abstract finkin of these nurses,even d so called pharmacist.a doctor who is eligible 2 become d CMD or a consultant mst ve spent an average of 10 years in d hospital jst for residency excludin 7yrs in medical skul.mst nurses in teachin hospitals spend jst 3yrs 2 get a diploma trainin 2 qualify dem 2 bcome nurses.nd dese MORONs wanna becom CMD,i do rather resign dan practice as doctor under a nurse

The problem with this country is people wanting to do wat they're not trained/qualified for, all because of greed. The doctor's the only health professional who was trained to give health care in totality. Apart from the usual medicine & surgery, the doctor is usually trained in medical laboratory sciences, nursing, pharmacy etc. That's why it has never been debatable as to who the head of the health institution is. Being the head of a public hospital is not all about administration, you need to be able to take non - admimistrative, at times purely medical decisions also.
Maybe they'd also want a court clerk to become the CJN...

Only doctors should head hospitals, just lyk saying politics should only be played by graduates of political science dats a piece of crap!! Anybodi in d medical field should be eligible to head a hospital

The doctor is the head of the medical team.
Running a hospital requires a background knowledge of the workings of that hospital which is best known by the doctor because all the processes involved in patient management including requesting for medical investigations, drug prescription, patient monitoring emanate from the doctor.
The patient belongs to the doctor and he has the best knowledge of ALL the challenges in patient mgt from lack of power to run a life support machine to lack of petrol to run an ambulance (no matter how far off these may seem from actual medicine practice).
The doctor is ultimately held responsible for the well being of a patient, no other person carries a greater burden of responsibility.
ONLY A DOCTOR SHOULD HEAD A HOSPITAL LESS IT CEASES TO BE REFERRED TO AS ONE.

centje: You know hospital is all about patient's care. Every other thing is secondary. Among the health professionals only doctors pass through all the health departments in the course of training

Super wrong! Have you heard about Bachelor in Nursing science (BNSc)?
I bet you don't have a blue on what the curriculum of the medical sciences and other medically related courses look like.
However, you should understand that been a CMD is solely an administrative assignment which makes other health team members qualified. Remember, it is called a health team.

Folks don't think while putting  some silly agendas. Very soon,dietitians would want control of a medical team, cathechists would wanna say sermon too. Juvenile poilitics in my opinion.

See question. Why not? That's how it is in other countries. Not like a country filled with backward people called Nigerians where Doctors and their overbloated ego are seen ås ontop of the world (funny enough, most of them know nothing). Medicine is just like everyother courses in health & Clinical sciences; they shouldn't have any special rights.
But, Nigerians are full of stereotypes anyways

centje: You know hospital is all about patient's care. Every other thing is secondary. Among the health professionals only doctors pass through all the health departments in the course of training

@Bolded, So is Nursing.