Following the dissolution in September, 2007 of federal tertiary health institutions in Nigeria, the Minister of Health, Prof.Babatunde Osotimehin, has recently in Abuja inaugurated the new management boards of federal tertiary hospitals, professional regulatory bodies and other parastatals of the ministry.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the minister said that in recent years, there have been public outcry against the dismal state of hospitals in the country, adding that several factors were responsible for the decay, which according to him include the lack of modern equipment, poor maintenance culture, poor funding, lack of sense of dignity of labor by employees as well as undue political interference by boards in day to day management of some of these health institutions.

Continuing, the minister said that, the boards of the parastatals are the major link with the health institutions, pointing that they are responsible for the development of the administrative, economic, financial and operational programmes based on government’s policy direction. He reminded them that they are to perform oversight function to ensure that the institutions they supervise meet set targets without running foul of the law governing their establishments.

"The Federal Government intends to utilize all available human and material resources at the Ministry, the hospitals and universities to re-engineer, re-invigorate and to reform our healthcare delivery and hence  total commitment, dedication and hard work from board members is expected in the discharge of their duties," the minister stressed.

  While calling on the board members to be transparent and accountable in the discharge of their duties, the minister appealed to them to cooperate with the top management team of their organisations to ensure that they capture and steer the energy and creativity of the staff to achieve remarkable progress.

In his remark, the minister of state for health, Dr. Idi Hong, said that lack of proper functioning of primary healthcare was responsible for tertiary hospitals treating minor cases, consequently overstretching facilities in the tertiary hospitals. He urged the state governors and local government chairmen to improve the primary healthcare centres in their domains to ensure that the tertiary institutions are not over stretched by patients.

A press statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Marshall Gundu stated that the chairmen of board members to have a good working relationship with management of the tertiary hospitals to ensure that the tertiary hospitals perform their functions effectively, assuring them of the Ministry’s cooperation to improve the health indices in the country.