Health minister Muhammed Ali Pate has called on medical workers and practitioners to always exercise and keep fit to enable them to carry out their duties effectively.

Mr Pate said this at the 2023 Fertility Management Games, known as FERT GAMES, on Sunday in Abuja.

The FERT Games feature different sports, with participants drawn from fertility facilities in the Federal Capital Territory.

“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,” Mr Pate said. “And when you return to work, you will be more agile and fit to perform your duties in the office.”

The health minister added, “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 a need for the workers to be happy because, if they are happy, it will encourage them to make their patients happy.”

Mustapha Adenoyi, from Sim Health Group, said the games were designed to create a bond among fertility management, hospitals and pharmaceuticals to become better.

One of the participants, Princewill Obinzekwe, a medical laboratory scientist from Well Life Hospital, Wuse II, said the significance of the games was to help exercise and relax the muscles, which indirectly solves some health-related issues.

Mr Obinzekwe also explained that the games would promote aspects of socialisation where participants mingle, know each other, and share contacts and experiences.

Another participant, Angela Ejembi, the chief operating officer of Queens Specialist Hospital, Apo, said the games bring out practitioners from the fertility space.

“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,” Ms Ejembi said.

(NAN)