The House of Representatives has urged tertiary health institutions across Nigeria, particularly university teaching hospitals, to prioritise medical research rather than waiting for emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic before taking action.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Health Institutions, Dr Patrick Umoh, spoke on Tuesday during the budget defence session of Federal University Teaching Hospitals, Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres in Abuja.
Umoh lamented that teaching hospitals had largely abandoned their core research mandate and were gradually assuming the roles of general hospitals instead of functioning as centres for medical innovation and development.
He criticised Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) for allocating less than one per cent of their annual budgets to research, accusing them of failing to consistently advocate for research funding during budget preparations.
According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the country’s weak research capacity in the health sector, noting that many institutions were unprepared to respond effectively to the health emergency.
“The COVID-19 pandemic caught us all unprepared. Let me mock you a little by saying that traditional medicine practitioners appeared to be doing better. You are not doing research,” Umoh said, adding that oversight visits had not revealed any dedicated research centres in most teaching hospitals.
Responding on behalf of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors, the Secretary of the Committee and CMD of Jos University Teaching Hospital, Prof. Pokop Wushipba Bupwatda, acknowledged that only about one per cent of teaching hospitals’ budgets is usually earmarked for research, explaining that the budget line is often removed during the final budgeting process.
Bupwatda called for increased funding for the health sector to enable recruitment of qualified manpower and improved staff welfare, which he said would help address the ongoing brain drain affecting the nation’s healthcare system.
He disclosed that many federal hospitals are critically understaffed, particularly with medical doctors, noting that even when recruitment approvals are granted, few doctors apply for positions, while only about 30 per cent of the 2025 budget was released to tertiary health institutions.
The CMD also identified electricity supply as a major operational challenge, stating that hospitals spend huge sums on power due to the need for constant electricity to run critical equipment.
He welcomed the proposed solar mini-grids for federal health institutions and appealed for take-off grants for about seven newly established facilities to enable them to commence full operations.
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