Douye Nomayo, a Nigerian student, won the best overall performance award at City, University of London‘s School of Health and Psychological Sciences.
The prize was awarded to a medical doctor who graduated with distinction from City, University of London with a Masters degree in Health Policy.
Nomayo spent nine years working at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, before moving to the United Kingdom.
In a press statement, Nomayo stated that she chose to pursue a second degree in Health Policy because she is interested in public service.
“During my time spent working in the hospital, I saw the suffering people went through to access healthcare, due to high cost or unavailability.
“I realised that healthcare practitioners must get more involved in politics in order to get problems in the health sector on the political agenda quickly. I set out to understand the financial and political aspects of policy-making in healthcare and learnt how to formulate, evaluate and improve on existing policies.
“Several countries have gone through health system reforms and their experiences can be leveraged upon to produce changes that will be financially feasible and acceptable to both healthcare providers and the Nigerian population,” she said.
Speaking further, Nomayo blamed the migration of Nigerian medical professionals to foreign countries, particularly the UK and the United States, on insecurity and economic factors.
“The level of insecurity became so high, forcing so many people to leave. A lot of medical doctors were kidnapped, and some were even killed,” she said, adding that medical professionals were not adequately paid for their work, while most of the hospitals in Nigeria are poorly equipped.”
