THE Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the Federal Government would fashion out a residency training programme that would tackle and solve the problem of the current system.
Chukwu, made this known at a one-day intensive appraisal of the residency training programme in Federal Government-owned hospitals in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that the strike by the doctors had brought the issue of residency training into sharper focus for Nigerians for a variety of reasons.
The minister said that the problems inherent in the current programme over the years crystallised in the few weeks into what was tantamount to a complete loss of empathy and concern for human life by the professional group.
Chukwu said that the appraisal was convened `to fashion out a residency training programme that would tackle and solve the problems of the current system.
He said that this was because over the years, it had derailed from its lofty initial ideas to a system which was drifting away from its set objective.
“This led the Federal Government to take the unprecedented step of suspending the programme in order to undertake a complete overhaul of the training,’’ Chukwu said.
The minister said that the meeting would find out the reason for the gross indiscipline in the programme and what would be the remedies.
“Why is the failure rate so high in the prescribed examination? Why does residency stay so long and what is the ideal funding mechanism for the programme considering present reality in the country?
“How best to implement government policy on the hands-on overseas component of the training? What is the ideal funding mechanism for it?