Experts stress the need for team work in health care sector

BY IFEOMA IKEM
Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Chapter have condemned unhealthy rivalry among other health care workers, saying that the patient should be the major consideration in the hospital.
Speaking at 2015 Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Association Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Chapter, Provost, College of Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. FolasadeOgunsola opined that the doctor as the supposed leader in the health care sector should carry all other health care workers as stakeholders along as they cannot do it all alone.
She noted that team work can never be overstressed as everybody is important in the hospital environment. The Provost described the doctors as managers charged with directing and controlling the work and staff of the hospital as a whole or unit/department within it.
Earlier in his welcome address, the chairman of MDCAN – LUTH, Dr RaphaelOgbolu, said the conference is meant to highlight the challenges the doctor faces as a hospital manager and how to address the inherent flaws in the medical curriculum and proffer solution to the plague of industrial disharmony in the health sector.
His words: “We are looking at how to modify the medical curriculum so that in the medical school the doctor can learn what it is to be a leader, a manager and with these skills in his kitty know how to work with others to avoid conflicts and disharmony.
“It has been mentioned several times but no action has been taken. Now we need to take definitive action; we keep talking about team work, what have you done to foster team work whereby at the medical school doctors, pharmacists and nurses from the beginning separately at the medical school. The former CMD of OAUTH told us that during his days at the medical school they were put in the same class with nurses and other health care professional so that helped them to bond so they didn’t see them as their enemies. So that is what we want to re-introduce that is what we are working on.”
Speaking on the theme of the conference “Equipping the Doctor for Today’s Challenges as a Hospital Manager,” Ogbolu said the topic was germane as the doctor was many things to many people “as a healer, a miracle worker, a saviour, a researcher, a philanthropist, a teacher, a student, a bread winner and so on; but he is not often seen as a manager.”
The conference, meant to highlight the challenges the doctor face as a hospital manager, was also attended byformer Provost, College of Health Sciences, ObafemiAwolowo Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife, Osun State; Prof. OluwoleAtoyebi, Registrar, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), and DrOlufunmilayoOlatunji, took their turns to speak during the