Renowned health experts have hailed newly developed Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG) to enhance health service delivery by giving clear guidelines to practitioners on best practices for patients.
The STG document, which was put together by submissions from a group of experts from health-based tertiary and research institutions around the country, curates the most up-to-date data in key areas of human medicine.
Speaking to newsmen on Sunday in Enugu, Prof John Ohaji-Obodo, Chairman, National Drug Formulary/Essential Drug List Committee, lauded the painstaking work done by the committee members on the recent publication/document.
Ohaji-Obodo noted that the committee members thoroughly scoured through recent publications and innovative clinical works to ensure that they improved on the previous edition of the STG.
According to him, the hard working committee members made up of eminent health practitioners and researchers added newest evidence on all areas of medicine including sections on anti-cancer drugs, COVID-19 and intensive care management of patients.
The Secretary of the Committee, Dr Stephen Ayinbuomwan, a Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist, commended the Federal Ministry of Health for their commitment to the development and dissemination of the STG.
Ayinbuomwan, who is with the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, also prayed that all hands must be on deck to ensure the document reaches the final users—the prescribers.
He thanked health partners that co-sponsored and supported the process including the WHO, USAID MTaPS (Medical Technology and Pharmaceutical Services) project and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) that made contributions towards the development of the STG.
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Speaking, Pharmacist Babatunde Akinola, the Country Project Director of USAID MTaPS (Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Services), said USAID was glad to partner with the government of Nigeria and the national formulary development and essential drug list committee to deliver an important national tool – STG.
Akinola noted that the new STG would guide prescribers and clinicians to use evidence for diagnosis, treatment and generation of prescriptions, especially for antimicrobials, which are at risk of developing resistance when misused.
He said the USAID MTaPS would continue to work with the government of Nigeria to domesticate the standard WHO classification of antimicrobials called AWaRe, to streamline antibiotic prescriptions and use by health workers and the populace.
Members of Nigeria Medical Association, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, who were all represented at the document’s launch, expressed readiness to key into dissemination and use of the new STG to enhance health service delivery.
It would be recalled that before the unveiling and launch of the document a series of high level workshops, systematic reviews and meta-analysis were considered to produce the best evidence.
The document, which is the 3rd edition that had been published by the Federal Ministry of Health and was subsequently officially unveiled and launched at a public event in Abuja on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022.
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