By Chioma Obinna

LAGOS – The Federal Government  has developed a national Human Resource for Health (HRH) with a view to ensuring the availability of requisite human resource in the right quantity, mix and distribution in the nation’s health system.

Minister of Health, Prof. Babatude Oshotimehin, who disclosed this weekend during  the 4th West African Health Exhibition and Conference in Lagos, said for the country’s health system to provide much needed improvement in overall performance, the requisite human resource must be available in the right quantity, mix and distribution.

Oshotimehin lamented that in Nigeria there was patently skewed distribution of the workforce in urban areas compared to the rural areas.

According to him, the situation facing the health sector is mitigated by the laws of demand and supply migration — both internal and external — and other factors which are inadequately documented.

The national Human Resource Health plan is to provide technical assistance to states and local governments and enables them to develop or update human resource.

Noting that there are plans to update and revise existing health legislations, he stressed the need to address the challenges still afflicting the Nigerian health system.

He urged participants at the international exhibition to partner with the government at all levels with a view to improving health care provision for fellow Nigerians as well as contributing to the achievement of the health- Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).