The Lagos State Government has embarked on Continuous Medical Education programs for health workers in the State in a bid to improve their knowledge and skills for efficient and effective service delivery.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, who disclosed this during the 2017 Ministerial Press Briefing to mark the second year in office of the Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, added that various categories of health workers including Doctors, Nurses and Laboratory Scientists benefitted from a number of programs organized by the State.

Idris explained that the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Narayana Hospital, India put together a Medical Education program where health care practitioners were exposed to professional skills in modern surgeries, noting that, “This was done in an effort to familiarize them with modern trends in surgical operations”.

Emphasizing the commitment of the State Government to boost the quality of health care delivery in the State, the Commissioner noted further that efforts were been made to extend the program to other health workers. To this end, numerous public and private healthcare professionals in the State were trained on Optimum Data Management for Effective Healthcare Delivery.

He averred that the quality of health care delivery in any society rests on the quality and capacity of its health workers, therefore, “This is why we as a government will continue to train and retrain our health workers to enhance their knowledge, skills and attitude for positive impact on the health status of Lagosians.”

He revealed that medical training programs were also organized for health workers on Stress Management as well as Current Trends in Family Planning.

Idris also mentioned that the State Government is continuously working to ensure a meaningful reduction in maternal and child mortality rate through capacity building for health workers at the Primary Health Care Centers (PHCs).

He pointed out that health care workers drawn from different PHCs in the State had been trained on Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), Case Management and Reach Every Ward/Child (REW/C).

The Commissioner maintained that the series of capacity building programs organized by the State Government contributed to a large extent to the success recorded in the immunization campaigns held in the last one year which was put at 99%, 93% & 67.5% of the targeted population for the first, second and third rounds respectively in all the 20 LGAs.