The Department of family medicine of Jos University Teaching Hospital on Tuesday joined family physicians and healthcare institutions across the world to commemorate the 2026 world family Doctors Day celebration
The event,held on May 19,2026 took place at the general outpatient Department (GOPD) of the hospital with the Theme: “Compassionate Care”
The program commenced with an opening prayer led by Dr Josima Benjamin
Declaring the event open,The
Head of Department of Family Medicine, Professor Mark Gyang, welcomed patients, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers to the celebration. In his address, he noted that family physicians attend to all categories of patients irrespective of age, gender, tribe, or religion, stressing that family medicine departments usually serve as the first point of contact in hospitals.
Professor Gyang appreciated the contributions of nurses, ward attendants, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and technicians, resident doctors, records personnel, legal officers, and other healthcare professionals for their collective efforts toward quality healthcare delivery.
The guest speaker and resource person for the event, Dr. Nenrit Wambutda, spoke extensively on the theme, “Compassionate Care.” She emphasized compassion as an important healing strategy in patient management and encouraged patients to exercise patience with healthcare providers, noting that medical personnel also face challenges such as human limitations and electronic network difficulties while delivering services.
According to her, healthcare providers always strive to attend to patients effectively, while patients also have a role to play by cooperating with doctors to achieve satisfactory medical outcomes.
Dr. Wambutda further highlighted the importance of establishing a personal relationship between family doctors and patients, while acknowledging the growing role of digital technology in healthcare delivery, including telemedicine and artificial intelligence.
She described family doctors as researchers, managers, caregivers, compassionate professionals, and custodians of patients’ confidential medical information.
During the interactive question-and-answer session, some patients, including Shelim Ignatius and Dagon Dadute, raised concerns over difficulties encountered while accessing National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) services, particularly issues relating to obtaining authorization codes.
Responding to the concerns, Dr. Paul and Dr. Titus Dajel the NHIA coordinator explained that most of the challenges associated with authorization codes originate from Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), clarifying that the codes are not generated by the hospital. They, however, assured patients that staff of the hospital remain committed to rendering healthcare services at all times.
Goodwill messages were also delivered by the Heads of Pharmacy, Legal Services, Records, and Nursing Departments.
Representing the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr. Pokop, the Deputy Chairman Medical Advisory Committee,(DCMAC) research and ethics Professor Chungdung Maina, conveyed the goodwill message of the CMD and urged healthcare workers and patients to embrace digital compliance in healthcare services.
She commended the Department of Family Medicine for its dedication to healthcare delivery, noting that family physicians attend to patients daily unlike many other hospital departments.
“I want to thank the doctors in Family Medicine for their efforts in healthcare delivery to teaming patients,” she stated.
The event ended with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr. Mamven Oluwatobi, while the closing Muslim prayer was conducted by Asmau Aliyu a patient.
GALLERY
