The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Akwa Ibom State chapter, has called for the creation of at least seven medical training institutions in the state.
NMA Chairman in the State, Professor Aniekan Peter stated this while briefing newsmen in Uyo on Tuesday.
He noted that the state is not meeting its employment quota for medical workers over the years, saying that something has to be done to urgently address the shortfall.
“If there is vacancies for 100,000 teachers in the state, I’m sure you will find them immediately, but recently the State governor, Umo Eno approved employment for 400 doctors and we couldn’t get them.
“It means that there’s something wrong somewhere.
“We were looking for 700 nurses in the first time and we couldn’t get until we relaxed some of the criteria before we were able to get the number,” he stated.
According to him, the time had come for the state government to refocus its priorities and see medical education as an empowerment.
While appreciating the governor for the approval of the Akwa Ibom State University to run a medical school, Peter said that it was not enough compared with other states of the federation like Delta that already had four training institutions.
“We appreciate the governor for the approval granted to the Akwa Ibom State University to start doing medicine and other medical courses.
“But for Akwa Ibom State, that is one over four, it’s still a failure, just 25%.
“So we thank the governor for opening the first
