Expert advocates improved collaboration between orthodox, traditional medicine practitioners
An Associate Professor of Nursing, Prof. Badru Fatai, has called for improved collaboration between orthodox and traditional medicine practitioners to boost the healthcare delivery system of the country.
Fatai, who is of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), made the call in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Lagos.
He said that little or no collaboration existed between the traditional and orthodox medicine practitioners and stressed the need for effective collaboration to boost healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
According to him, traditional healers play a huge role in healthcare delivery system at the grassroots.
Fatai expressed confidence in the efficacy of herbal medicines to cure some diseases, and called for integration of traditional medicines into the national healthcare policy to promote its recognition in the country.
“Integration will help formalise operations of the traditional healers, thereby encouraging superior research and use of the herbal medicines.
“Traditional healers carry much of the burden of healthcare in the rural areas. This calls for concerted efforts to incorporate them into the national healthcare delivery system,” he told newsmen.
He said that findings show that the integration is often hindered by lack of understanding of traditional medicines, discrimination, and high turnover of orthodox personnel and scarcity of equipment.
The associate professor, therefore, harped on the need for trust-relationship and understanding between the traditional healers and orthodox practitioners.
He also suggested the need for adequate monitoring and review of operations of the traditional healers for optimum and standardised service delivery.
Fatai said supervision was also necessary to ensure that dully qualified, registered and certified traditional healers were practicing.
He also suggested the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation team consisting of doctors and traditional practitioners, members of the healers associations and other experts.
“This team has to set up a template for certification and quality assessment to effectively monitor, manage and evaluate operations of the traditional medicine practitioners,” he said.
