The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammed Ali Pate, has called on medical workers and practitioners to always exercise and keep fit to enable them carry out their dilutes effectively.
Pate made the call at the 2023 Fertility Management Games, know as FERT GAMES, on Sunday in Abuja. The FERT Games feature different sports where participants are drawn from Fertility Facilities in the Federal Capital Territory.
Pate, who was represented by an official from the ministry, Mr Ussaini Mohammed Anani, said it is good to exercise, keep fit and improve the health status of an individual.
“Sporting event is key to achieving such, so therefore we are happy and encouraged. We hope that this will boost the morale of workers.
“These games enable participants to come out of the work environments and get relaxed and exercise. And when you return to work, you will be more agile and fit to perform your duties in the office.
“So I think, this is laudable. We encourage it and we hope it will continue and everybody will be happy. I thank the organisers of the games.
“The first thing is to save lives and every other thing will follow. There is need for the workers to be happy, because, if they are happy, it will encourage them to make their patients happy,” Pate said.
Speaking, Mr Mustapha Adenoyi, from Sim Health Group, said the games are designed to create a bond among fertility managements, hospitals and Pharmaceuticals to synergise their industries and sector to become better.
Adenoyi said one of the products his facility brought was “Client shot” which allows customers or clients to give feedback about the services they accessed in the facility.
One of the participants, Princewill Obinzekwe, a medical laboratory scientist from Well Life Hospital, Wuse II, said the significance of the games is to help exercise and relax the muscles which indirectly solve some health- related issues.
He also explained that the games would promote aspects of socialisation where participant mingle, know each other, share contacts and experiences. Another participant, Dr Angela Ejembi, the Chief Operating Officer of Queens Specialist Hospital, Apo, said the games bring out practitioners from the fertility space.
According.to her, it gives them the opportunity to wind down from the normal rigorous activities that they undertake at the work place.
“This is the third year of the games. And I encourage participants to continue on an annual basis and expand the scope of participation, not just for fertility practitioners but also other spheres of evolving medical practice and those that are traditional ones in Nigeria,” Ejembi stated.