Towards Result Oriented Health Care Delivery System In Sub-Saharan Africa in TheNew MillenniumI.

The paper observes the on-going social science debate about the total superiority of orthodoxmedicine to traditional medicine; but takes it as advanced form of imperialist propaganda.The procedures followed by orthodox medicine practitioners are well known in modernHealth Care delivery system. The procedures followed by traditional medicine practitionersare not also hidden. The paper wants to see a joint participation of orthodox and traditionalmedicine practitioners in the Health Care delivery system in Sub-Saharan Africa. Itparticularly calls for both practitioners to consolidate their skills in their areas of provencompetence. The paper further aims at breaking the colonial imposed boundaries betweenthe two practitioners. The writer argues vehemently that traditional and orthodox medicinepractitioners have been complementing each other’s services and this should be furtherstrengthened. Using Nigeria, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and Lesotho as case studies, the featsof traditional bone setters herbalists, psychotherapists are recounted and appreciatedespecially as the skills are also woven into the social fabric of the societies. The paperobserves that before the coming of missionaries and colonists the traditional medicinepractitioners contributed a great deal to the health care delivery system in Africa. The paperrecommends that governments of African countries should accord due recognition to thetraditional medicine practitioners who complement the efforts of the orthodox medicinepractitioners by creating a forum for the orthodox and traditional medicine practitioners tomeet and exchange information as well as encouraging referral services from one to the otheras the needs arise