‘Invest recovered loot in education, health’

NPMCN graduates 367 Family Medicine practitioners 
President, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), Prof. Rasheed Arogundade, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, to invest stolen monies recovered through his anti-corruption crusade in education and health.

He made the appeal during the 2015 pre-convocation briefing and graduation ceremony of 367 diplomates from the Faculty of Family Medicine of the college.

The recovered loot if invested in the sectors, Arogundade believes, would go a long way in tackling the lingering challenges that have confronted healthcare, teaching and learning in the country.
“It is our wish to congratulate Buhari for the giant strides he has made in less than four months in office. He promised us change and we have started seeing the wind of that change. The anti-corruption stance of the Federal Government is indeed commendable, and we have no doubt in our minds that with this development, a lot of money would be saved for the nation to meet diverse needs in the field of education, health, among others,” Arogundade stated.

He regretted that the college established to produce specialists in all branches of Medicine and Dentistry, has experienced difficult times developing its infrastructure and procuring needed laboratory equipment.

He informed that the construction of the proposed Clinical Skills and Simulation Laboratory, required to train medical and dental specialists in line with global best practices has not commenced.

He urged government and all concerned to come to the aid of the college so as to enhance postgraduate medical education in Nigeria.
On the new diploma programme of the college, he said, “The need for diploma certification in Family Medicine is predicated on the fact that it is almost impossible to get all doctors desirous of further training to enroll into the formal residency training programmes for specialist status by obtaining fellowship. It therefore became imperative for the college to design other programmes to meet the real need of the general medical practitioners.”

The pioneer graduands, he noted, have undergone 18-month part-time training to fulfill the requirements laid down by the senate and attained the appropriate level of proficiency for independent general duty medical practice.

However, the college will at the 33rd convocation ceremony taking place today, award Fellowship certificates to 341 fellows who passed their final examinations in 15 faculties of the college.

Arogundade said the college would also at the ceremony, bestow honourary fellowship award on Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, for his achievements in the health sector, while a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr. Emmanuel Otolorin will deliver the convocation lecture.

Commending the college of the diploma programme, one of the graduands, Dr. Olufemi Fatokun, described the training in Family Medicine as worthwhile. “I had a lot of information added to my knowledge. It is of high quality; it should continue and should be encouraged.

We had a lot of good lecturers that are well grounded in the field. But the cost is a bit high. May be the younger doctors may not be able to afford such amount,” he said.