By Wale Obanigba, Esq.
Friday, Sept. 25, 2026
The Ondo State Specialist Hospital, Akure, appears to be facing a fundamental manpower challenge that raises concerns about its capacity to function as a comprehensive secondary healthcare facility.
This concern becomes particularly relevant in the light of Dr. Debo Akinbami’s recent article, “Aiyedatiwa’s Phenomenal Health Sector Performance,” in which the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communication highlighted the administration’s investments in healthcare infrastructure, recruitment, specialist development and medical training. The article presents an ambitious picture of a health system whose capacity is expanding rapidly.
There is no question that infrastructure and equipment, if they truly exist, are important components of healthcare development. However, the more critical appraisal is whether those investments are matched by the specialist manpower required to make the facilities fully functional.
The concern is particularly significant because the State Specialist Hospital, formerly known as the Mother and Child Hospital, Oke-Aro, has assumed a more important role in the State’s healthcare architecture following the transition of the former UNIMED teaching-hospital arrangement to the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) University Teaching Hospital.
With that development, the State Specialist Hospital has become a major State Government-owned secondary healthcare facility serving residents of Akure and its environs. Its capacity should therefore be a matter of serious public interest.
Available information indicates that the hospital currently has two consultants in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and one consultant in Paediatrics, but no consultant in Internal Medicine and no consultant in General Surgery. If this information is accurate, it raises concerns about the hospital’s ability to provide the full range of core secondary medical services.
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria’s requirements for facilities seeking approval for housemanship provide a useful benchmark. The four core disciplines; Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Paediatrics, are central to the clinical training of house officers. A facility without the required consultant capacity across these disciplines cannot provide the complete clinical exposure expected of a fully accredited housemanship centre.
The implications, however, goes beyond the training of young doctors. A medical graduate undertaking housemanship at the hospital may be able to obtain exposure in Paediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology but would need another accredited institution for the Medicine and Surgery components. More importantly, the absence of consultants in two major clinical disciplines raises concerns about the hospital’s capacity to manage patients requiring specialist intervention in those areas.
The manpower challenge is reportedly even broader. In some instances, these few consultants are said to have to work with NYSC doctors rather than resident doctors or registrars because of inadequate personnel. If this is the case, it points to a staff structure that deserves proper examination. A specialist hospital requires more than the presence of consultants on its nominal staff list. It requires an adequate complement of medical officers, residents or registrars, nurses and other health professionals to support those consultants and ensure continuity of care, clinical supervision and effective service delivery.
Then, there is the additional issue of the hospital’s lone consultant paediatrician, who also doubles as its Chief Medical Director. Holding both clinical and administrative responsibilities is not, in itself, a problem. However, where one consultant is responsible for an entire clinical specialty while simultaneously carrying substantial institutional management duties, the availability of adequate time for routine clinical practice, supervision and mentorship becomes a concern.
This is not an indictment of the medical professionals working in the hospital. Rather, it highlights the need to ensure that individual doctors are not expected to carry institutional responsibilities that ought to be supported by adequate manpower.
The situation also prompts a broader inquiry. If a major State Government-owned secondary healthcare facility in Akure is without consultants in General Surgery and Internal Medicine, what is the manpower situation in the State Specialist Hospitals in Owo, Ikare and Okitipupa? Are there adequate consultants in the four core disciplines? Are their theatres appropriately staffed and functional? Can patients requiring specialist intervention receive such care without being referred outside their towns?
These are not assumptions that those hospitals are worse off. They point instead to the need for the State to maintain a clear and current picture of specialist manpower across all its secondary healthcare institutions.
The recent controversy over the deployment of Community Health Extension Workers to secondary healthcare facilities also underscores the importance of a coherent manpower strategy. CHEWs have an important role in healthcare delivery, but their deployment should not become a substitute for professional cadres required to perform duties outside their training and professional scope. The right professional should be available in the right facility, performing duties appropriate to his or her qualifications and scope of practice.
Government investment in buildings, equipment and other infrastructure is important. But a hospital is sustained by the personnel who operate it. A modern theatre without surgeons, a medical ward without physicians, or a specialist facility without sufficient supporting personnel cannot fully deliver the services its infrastructure suggests it should provide.
The State Government should therefore prioritise the recruitment and retention of consultants in critical specialties, while ensuring that existing specialists have the supporting doctors, nurses and other health professionals required to function effectively. The staffing position of all State Specialist Hospitals should also be periodically reviewed against clearly defined service and accreditation standards.
The State Specialist Hospital, Akure, should not merely carry the designation “Specialist Hospital.” It should have the specialist manpower necessary to make that designation meaningful.
What matters is that when a resident walks through the hospital’s doors, the qualified professional required to treat the patient’s condition is available.
Wale Obanigba writes from Akure.