Pulse.ng : Army to enhance manpower, capacity of health personnel

By Mohammed Tijjani

The Nigerian Army Medical Corps says it is working to enhance the capacity of health personnel to provide more qualitative healthcare services to troops.

Brig.-Gen. Samson Okoigi, Acting Commander, Army Medical Corps, said this on Wednesday at the opening of the corps’ first quarter Commander’s Conference in Kaduna.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the four-day conference has the theme “Efficient Human and Material Resource Management in the Face of Contemporary Security Challenges: Imperatives for Sustaining a 21st Century Nigerian Army Hospital in a Joint Environment”.

Okoigi said the Army was also working to inject more manpower to the medical corps to enhance professionalism and quality healthcare in a transparent manner.

He said the choice of Kaduna, a departure from the usual venue of the Corps HQ in Lagos, stemmed from the key role of the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna (NARHK).

He said that the hospital has been delivering healthcare services especially with respect to the Counter Terrorism and Counter Insurgency operations in the North East and North West theatres of operation.

He added that to achieve the corps’ mandate the manpower and capacity building would continue to be on the front burner of the Army leadership.
“I will share some of the highlights and feedback from the COAS First Quarter Conference held between April 15 and 19.

“I am confident that we will have another successful conference that will build on the achievements of our last meeting on ‘Efficient Healthcare Service Delivery in Contemporary Nigerian Army Medical Corps’.

“In 44 NARHK, the COAS facilitated the procurement and installation of a new 1.5T MRI Scan and the old 0.5T was refurbished.

”At the 68 NARH Yaba, Lagos State, there is ongoing remodelling and equipping of a 6 bedded ICU to ensure its operationalisation.”

He added that the conference would enable the participants to learn from one another, explore the challenges and identify solutions to improve healthcare outcomes.