The Nigerian Medical Association has blamed alleged insincerity on the part of the Federal and state governments for the high rate of brain drain being experienced in the nation’s health sector.
The NMA argued that since the Federal and state governments had paid little or no attention to the working conditions and plight of doctors and other medical personnel, these professionals would have no other choice than to look outside the country for greener pastures.
The Chairman, Lagos State chapter of the association, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odubote, had recently raised the alarm over the high rate at which Nigerian doctors had been leaving the country to work in hospitals abroad.
Odubote had disclosed that over 800 doctors had resigned from their jobs in hospitals in Lagos alone in the past two years, while over 100 had left the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Nigeria needs nothing less than 280,000 doctors, but has only 45,000
He added that more than 40,000 out of the 75,000 registered Nigerian doctors were already practising abroad, while 70 per cent of those still in the country planned to pick up appointments outside Nigeria.
The National President, NMA, Prof. Mike Ogirima, however, told our correspondent in an exclusive chat that the current situation in which the country was faced with the dearth of doctors and other medical personnel was putting pressure on the nation’s health sector.
Ogirima said that the few available experienced health workers were being overworked and put under so much stress, while the younger and inexperienced ones continued to find it difficult to get jobs and to practise without so much stress as their counterparts abroad.
He stressed that the problem of brain drain would continue to plague the nation’s health sector as long the Federal and state governments refused to put in place the necessary conducive atmosphere and better condition of service to attract and retain professionals in the sector.
Ogirima added that the poor working conditions and inadequate remunerations paid health workers as well as government’s failure to employ more health workers would keep putting the few ones available in the country under the pressure to leave for greener pasture abroad.
The NMA president said, “Why won’t they leave? Junior doctors and specialists without experience are roaming around the streets, begging for work, and to set up private medical outfits is expensive. So, how do they get this experience, if there are no jobs and funds to practise under an experienced hand?
“Meanwhile, we fall far short of the World Health Organisation’s standard of 1:600 doctor to patient ratio in Nigeria. We need nothing less than 280,000 doctors, but we have about 45,000 doctors for our population.
“So, we can see the stress it is imposing on our health workers, coupled with the poor working conditions, lack of equipment and obsolete equipment, with the unwillingness on the part of the government to replace them.”
