The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Registration Board for Radiologic Technologists, Professor Mark Okeji, says there are currently only 4,800 radiographers in Nigeria and even fewer sonographers.
He said this figure was inadequate and would not meet the health needs of Nigeria’s population of over 200 million people.
Okeji noted that the specialty has been further affected by the ongoing mass exodus of health workers, leading to a shortage of skilled personnel.
“If you add in all the sonographers and radiographers on our register, there would be less than 5,000. We have somewhere in the region of 4,800 in this country, but that’s not enough,” the RRBN registrar said. said.
But he pointed out that the committee has established more programs at universities to train more radiographers and sonographers, and hopes that in the next five years there will be enough technicians in the country. He emphasized that he was deaf.
“But the board has done some really great things in the last six years that I took over. We’ve established more programs at our universities than ever before. Up to 23 universities are now in this When I took over there were about eight people, but now things are starting to improve.
“I guarantee you that we will have enough talent within the next three, four, five years,” Okeji said.
Mr Okeji made this statement on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Ultrasound Practitioners Association held in Lagos recently with the theme “Standard Obstetrics and Gynecology Ultrasound Protocol”.
Punch Healthwise reports that more than 75 per cent of Nigeria’s trained health workers leave the country to pursue opportunities abroad.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Care Professor Ali Pate said in March that the health sector was “barely running” and said the government was beginning to take steps to “expand training and working conditions”.
Commenting on the theme of the conference, Mr Okeji said the importance of ultrasound in all aspects of medicine to ensure proper diagnosis.
He further pointed out that ultrasound scans have improved medical assessment of fetal viability, movement, and position without harming the fetus.
Don said the board plans to train more sonographers and deploy them to primary health care centers to ensure accurate diagnosis and better health outcomes. added.
“That is why the Radiologic Technologist Registration Board of Nigeria, on its own initiative, initiated this training.In the past, we trained radiographers and encouraged them to specialize in ultrasound examinations; In order to bring health closer to people, we have people involved in critical health care come and undergo ultrasound training.
“Through our efforts, we are sending ultrasound technicians to primary health care centers in this country so that pregnant women using these PHCs can undergo basic and simple ultrasound tests to detect the unborn baby. “We want to be able to assess the condition and position of the fetus and advise the midwife on the following: “We can tell the condition of the fetus,” Okeji said.
The don further blamed Japa syndrome, pointing out that most health workers are trained in both European markets and Nigeria.
He said: “We have the challenge of training for the Nigerian and European markets. Every radiologist graduating today will want to go to Japan. So we are training more and more. We seek to strike a balance by doing so. We have received the mandate from the Minister of Health and Human Services, Mr. Tunji Alausa, to increase training slots in universities to improve the workforce we currently have. We are conducting further training to ensure that human resources are vital to health and without them there would be no people.”
The Registrar further said that the commission ensures strict regulation, monitoring and supervision of the practice and that those who violate the training norms will be punished.
“So what the board is putting in place is to make sure that people are properly trained and supervised and guided by the necessary professionals, and that the standards that we have in place “So the board is going to not only encourage training, but also allow those who have been trained to practice within the scope of their training,” Don said. spoke.
AMUPN Chairman, Dr. Olabode Adewunmi, in an interview with Punch Healthwise also decried the shortage of manpower faced by the medical field.
He said the situation was dire, stating that the ratio of sonographers to population in Nigeria was one for every 250,000 people.
Mr. Adewunmi further emphasized the importance of ultrasound equipment, noting that the use of state-of-the-art equipment has made diagnosis easier.
“Of course, we are also affected by Japa syndrome. Sonographers are very active everywhere in the world. So we need the government to create an enabling environment for that. Institutions need to emerge that can encourage ultrasound training, but an enabling environment from the government can help make this happen, and the government provides subsidies for equipment, especially new equipment. I think it would be of great help to help professionals.
“I look forward to a time when Nigeria has enough ultrasound technicians to meet the medical needs of Nigerians and ensure that pregnant women and others who need ultrasound scans can receive them safely.
“We (sonographers) are like the eyes of medicine. If we mislead doctors about who they are, we’ll have problems. So this is food for thought for all of us,” AMUPN the chairman said.
