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The Federal Government has vowed to increase support for surgical research in tertiary institutions to enhance healthcare standards and foster medical breakthroughs nationwide.
The Director of Health Planning, Research and Statistics of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Kamil Soretire disclosed this in Lagos at the annual meeting of the National Institute of Health Research, Global Surgery Unit.
Soretire highlighted that most of the research centres involved in surgical studies are primarily federal medical and teaching hospitals, with only a few state-owned health institutions participating.
He praised the collaboration between federal and state governments, noting that it demonstrates a concerted effort to build research capacity and improve healthcare outcomes across the country.
He added, “The ministry associates with NIHR GSU initiatives to boost surgical research in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
“Most of the centres that are involved in surgical research are either Federal Medical Centres or Federal Teaching Hospitals with few state-owned health institutions.
“This is very good for the ministry because it shows that both federal and state governments are collaborating and building capacity for research.”
Also, a Director of the NIHR GSU, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Prof. Adesoji Ademuyiwa said that the theme of the 2025 conference was apt.
Ademuyiwa said that research, particularly clinical research, was an enterprise that required interactions with patients.
He said that in surgical research, lives are at stake and there are many risks but it was important that it should done for the patient’s benefit.
The professor of pediatric surgery said further that in this kind of research, it was important to have regulations, as one could not do anything one liked.
He noted that, due to the regulatory authorities’ input, surgeons are now more careful to ensure that the level of research they conduct in Nigeria is high-level research, generating the best evidence possible.
Ademuyiwa said that these researches are called randomised control trials, and they require approval from both the National Health Ethics Research Committee and the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control before they are conducted.
“Surgeons decided that if they are going to meet up with the requirements of surgical research, it is best to have the regulatory bodies train them to conduct high-level research,” Ademuyiwa said.
On his part, the Chief Medical Director of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Prof Wasiu Adeyemo said that the conference was all about training the surgeons to be researchers.
Adeyemo, who was represented by the Deputy Chairman, the Medical Advisory Committee, Dr Rufus Ojewola, said that the essence of the conference was not for surgeons to focus on one aspect of their responsibilities alone.
He said that LUTH was the hub of the surgical research network, being the centre where most of the activities are coordinated and every other hospital in the network are called the spoke.
NAN
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