The Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, on Thursday stressed the need for the availability of trained biomedical engineers in Nigerian hospitals.
According to Ajetunmobi, most medical equipment in hospitals does not undergo proper maintenance due to the absence of well-trained biomedical engineers.
She made this known at the ongoing 4th National Oxygen Coordination Meeting organised by the Nigerian government and development partners in Abuja on Thursday.
Nigeria is currently facing a significant shortage of biomedical engineers, with estimates suggesting fewer than 0.05 biomedical engineers per 10,000 people, translating to about 280 biomedical engineers nationwide.
Biomedical engineers play a crucial role in improving healthcare delivery by designing, implementing and maintaining medical equipment, as well as conducting research and development in healthcare solutions.
To address the shortage, the Nigerian government has established specialised biomedical engineering departments in universities, provided financial support for research and development, and launched training programmes to enhance skills and knowledge.
The government has also collaborated with international institutions to improve educational standards and promote innovation in biomedical engineering.
Speaking on the matter, the commissioner said, “In some of our hospitals, we don’t even have trained biomedical engineers. Even though we have people occupying the space, they still need to be trained regularly.
“They need to be trained every now and then. They are the ones taking care of the machines working at the back end. So we need that capacity building for biomedical engineers to be able to know what to do, when to do it and how to do it.”
On the availability of equipment for medical oxygen use in hospitals, Ajetunmobi cited the case of Oyo State, where the oxygen plants are customised.
“For example, the solarised oxygen plant in Oyo State is customised. Many a time when the maintenance agency comes to service it, it becomes an issue to be able to say, okay, can we get these spare parts? We need a regular supply of spare parts because if we have the spare parts, we know that whatever goes wrong, we have spare parts for it. So it’s another major thing that we need to do. So in these past three days, these are the things that we have been engaging ourselves in doing.”
Also speaking at the event, the Secretary, National Oxygen Desk, Federal Ministry of Health, Eno Edem, urged state governments to put into use all the lessons learnt concerning the sustainability of medical oxygen.
She also called for the training of healthcare workers, whom she described as the main actors in efforts to achieve the sustainability of medical oxygen.
