The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has granted full accreditation to the State Specialist Hospital, Ikere-Ekiti, as a training centre for newly qualified medical doctors undergoing housemanship.
The Council’s Deputy Registrar, Dr Nnaemeka Nwakama, announced the approval during an accreditation visit to the hospital.
He said the Council was committed to ensuring that healthcare facilities meeting the prescribed requirements received accreditation promptly.
Expressing confidence in the hospital’s capacity to run the programme, the deputy registrar noted that successive assessments had shown significant improvements in its facilities and services.
According to Nwakama, the latest assessment confirmed that the hospital had met the required standards for housemanship training.
“The MDCN grants housemanship accreditation only to hospitals that satisfy its statutory requirements for training. The State Specialist Hospital, Ikere-Ekiti, was approved after meeting the Council’s benchmarks in clinical services, manpower, facilities and adequate patient load,” the Council’s Deputy Registrar said.
Improvements recorded during three successive visits, he added, had qualified the facility for full accreditation as a housemanship training centre.
The official explained that the MDCN, established under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, regulates medical and dental training and practice in Nigeria.
Its statutory functions, he added, include setting training standards, registering practitioners and accrediting institutions for medical education and housemanship programmes.
Nwakama further said the hospital had satisfied requirements relating to training structures and the welfare of house officers, including organised ward rounds, seminars, clinical presentations, call rooms and other welfare provisions.
“Based on what we have seen, and considering that this is our third visit to this hospital, the Council is pleased to grant this facility approval to commence its housemanship programme with 10 house officers for a start,” he said.
The deputy registrar urged the hospital management to sustain the improvements and address areas of concern identified by the Council, in order to promote effective service delivery, academic excellence and adequate clinical exposure for the house officers.
Speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary of the Hospitals Management Board (HMB), Dr Olasunkanmi Alabi, thanked the Council for granting the accreditation.
She described the approval as a significant achievement, noting that securing accreditation for housemanship training required a rigorous process but offered considerable benefits.
Alabi recalled that the accreditation team had visited the hospital twice previously as part of the routine visits to assess the hospital facilities.
The institution, she added, eventually secured the accreditation during its third assessment.
The permanent secretary described the development as a long-standing aspiration of the hospital, saying it would expose the institution and its host community to greater clinical advancement, research and professional experience.
She commended the Ekiti State Government for its sustained investment in infrastructure, manpower and medical equipment, which she said contributed to the hospital meeting the Council’s requirements.
Housemanship, the HMB boss explained, is the compulsory one-year supervised clinical training that newly qualified doctors in Nigeria must complete before obtaining a full practising licence from the MDCN.
The accreditation, she said, would enable the hospital to receive house officers through the Council’s Centralised Housemanship Posting System, potentially increasing the number of doctors available to serve residents of Ikere-Ekiti and neighbouring communities.
Alabi added that the approval would also improve healthcare delivery and strengthen the professional development of the hospital’s medical personnel through teaching and mentorship.
She assured the Council that the state government would sustain the existing standards and continue to improve the facilities and services at the hospital.
The immediate past Chairman of the HMB, Dr Austin Ibikunle, and the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr Catherine Akinsipe, also commended the Council for approving the facility after three accreditation applications.
They said the development would strengthen Ekiti State’s position as an emerging centre for medical training.
They also appreciated the Council and the state government for their efforts in securing the approval.
Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of Hillside University of Science and Technology, Okemesi-Ekiti, Prof Iheanyichukwu Okoro, said the accreditation would deepen the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Hospitals Management Board and the University for the training of its medical students at the State Specialist Hospital, Ikere-Ekiti.
Prof Okoro noted that the new development would guarantee greater collaboration and provide the University’s medical students with unhindered access to training at the facility.
According to him, the approval would not only enhance academic advancement and medical excellence, but also strengthen the long-term partnership between the University and the Board in the training of quality doctors for Nigeria.