Catholic Stakeholders urges mass training of health workers to rescue ailing church-run hospitals

Lafia, Nasarawa State - Stakeholders of the Catholic Diocese of Lafia have issued an urgent call for the large-scale training of priests, religious brothers and sisters, and lay faithful in healthcare disciplines, warning that chronic staff shortages are crippling Catholic hospitals and clinics across the state.

The demand came during a one-day symposium held in Lafia to mark the diocese’s 25th anniversary, where speakers painted a grim picture of overstretched facilities struggling to serve tens of thousands of low-income patients each year.

“The Church does not only preach it heals. But today, our healing mission is under threat because we simply do not have enough trained hands,” said Rev. Fr. Matthew Ofoku, Vicar General of the diocese, in his keynote address. “We inherited Ola Hospital Gitata, Agwatashi Health Centre, and later built St. Bernard’s in Akanga. These facilities are overwhelmed. Demand has outpaced our personnel for years.”

Ofoku stressed that the training push must cover nursing, medical laboratory science, pharmacy, public health, and other allied fields not just to boost efficiency, but to safeguard the Catholic ethical identity of Church-owned institutions.

Echoing his concerns, Esther Yonah, Head of the Diocesan Health Commission, revealed that most facilities are running on “skeleton staff,” with a few overworked employees handling thousands of cases annually. “We cannot deliver compassionate, quality care with empty wards and exhausted nurses,” she said. “Investing in our own people is the only way to keep our hospitals truly Catholic and truly functional.”

The symposium also highlighted the crippling effect of brain drain, which Bishop Most Rev. David Ajang said has hit Church-run facilities as hard as public hospitals. “The exodus of our best health workers overseas has left deep gaps,” Ajang admitted. “But this jubilee is a moment to reset. I am committed to turning this around for the poor, who depend on us most.”

The bishop, who also marked his 5th episcopal ordination anniversary during the celebrations, appealed for prayers for the Church and for divine intervention in Nigeria’s broader healthcare crisis.

In a related development, stakeholders at the event formally appealed to the Nasarawa State Government to return remaining mission schools seized during the former military regime, arguing that education and health remain inseparable pillars of the Church’s social mission.