Nigerian Thoracic Society Urges FG to Increase Health Funding, Upgrade Respiratory Care Infrastructure

The Nigerian Thoracic Society (NTS) has called on the Federal Government to significantly scale up investments in health-sector financing, hospital infrastructure, and regional medical facilities to improve respiratory care outcomes across the country.

In a communiqué issued at the conclusion of its 32nd Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference in Lagos, the society urged the government to establish fully equipped regional centres of excellence dedicated to advancing diagnosis, treatment, and research in respiratory medicine.

The statement, signed by NTS President Musa Babashani and Secretary General Abiona Odeyemi, emphasized that modernising hospital infrastructure is critical to meeting Nigeria’s rapidly increasing burden of respiratory diseases.

The NTS further encouraged hospital administrators to strengthen health-data documentation and improve local research capacities to support emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

The conference, themed “Harnessing Technology to Advance Equitable Respiratory Care in Nigeria,” brought together physicians, researchers, and public-health specialists from within and outside the country to examine how technology and AI can transform respiratory and critical care in Nigeria.

Delegates agreed that while AI offers vast potential in improving diagnosis, treatment, and patient monitoring, it cannot replace the expertise and decision-making of healthcare professionals.

A key sub-theme of the conference focused on public enlightenment and the root causes of respiratory diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. Participants highlighted pressing challenges, including:

• High prevalence of tobacco use
• Increasing lung cancer incidence
• Limited access to quality healthcare
• Low insurance coverage
• Poor public knowledge of emergency response procedures such as CPR

The communiqué stressed the urgent need for heightened public-health education and nationwide CPR training to boost emergency response readiness.

It also renewed the NTS’s long-standing call for robust public-awareness campaigns against tobacco use, describing current tobacco-control efforts as inadequate.

The Special Guest of Honour, Minister of Education Tunji Alausa, was represented at the event by his Special Adviser on Technical Matters, David Atuwo.

The keynote address was delivered by Christian Bime, Division Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, USA.