The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) yesterday decried the poor and unsatisfactory state of health care delivery in the country and advocated the upgrading in the system.

The National President of MDCAN, Dr Steven Oluwole while briefing journalists

at the National Medical Association (NMA) House, Ibadan, Oyo State capital,

disclosed that the healthcare system in Nigeria was inadequately to serve Nigerians because the tertiary healthcare was not designed to be the only

functional level healthcare structure. "The teaching and specialist hospitals, which are accessed directly by patients rather than through organized referral systems are congested, and less effective to meet the needs of all patients. While infrastructures for primary and secondary level healthcare exist in many states of the federal republic, no meaningful if any services are provided by many.

"There should be no legislation that prevents or bars Nigerians from

seeking health services outside of the country. Thus, reversal of health

tourism, which drains the economy and occasionally cost lives, should be

reversed by appropriate reorganization of our health services that will inspire the confidence of most Nigerians" he said.

According to him, problems in the health sector in Nigeria, which did not

develop in a day, will require some time to reduce or eliminate.

He disclosed that the association was prepare to offer assistant to the Federal and State Ministries of Health to provide consultant driven healthcare at primary and secondary levels.

Also, in an effort to reduce road accidents, he said MDCAN, was set to

partner with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and other stakeholders to ensure that road crashes are averted in the country.

He said that road accident was a major headache in the country, adding that

working hand in hand with the major stakeholders in the traffic sector will go along way to curtail the menace."We shall embark on sensitization campaigns and lectures with the FRSC,NURTW to sensitive drivers and this we believe will step down the rate of crashes that are usually recorded on our major roads."Our major area of focus in this awareness is anchored on over-speeding,use of cell phones while driving, taking of toxic substances before driving and the non-use of seatbelt by motorists" Dr Oluwole explained.

He called on motorists to abstain from overloading, wrong overtaking to ensure the safety of their vehicles, non-infringement of high way codes and avoid bad road culture.