Nigeria has lost about 15,000 to 16,000 doctors to the Japa syndrome (migration) in the last five years.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof
Ali Pate, disclosed this on Sunday, March 10, when he appeared on Channels
Television’s Politics Today.
Pate said the brain drain syndrome has robbed the health
sector of its best hands
The minister explained that there are 300,000 health
professionals in Nigeria but only 55,000 of them are doctors.
He said, “There are about 300,000 health professionals
working in Nigeria today in all cadres. I am talking about doctors, nurses,
midwives, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and others.
"We did an assessment and discovered we have 85,000 to
90,000 registered Nigerian doctors. Not all of them are in the country. Some
are in the Diaspora, especially in the US and UK. But there are 55,000 licensed
doctors in the country.
“The issue overall, in terms of health professionals, is
that they are not enough. They are insufficient in terms of the skills mix. Can
you believe most of the high skilled professional doctors are in Lagos, Abuja
and a few urban centres? There is a huge distribution issue.
“The population of doctor overall is about 7,600 doctors in
Lagos and 4,700 or thereabout in Abuja. The doctor to population ratio in Abuja
is 14.7 per 10,000 population. These are numbers that you can verify. In Lagos,
it is about 4.6, even though the average is 2.2 by 10,000.
“There are huge distributional issues and they are, of
course, the opportunities even for some of those who have been trained to get
into the market. So you have to look at it from a perspective that is holistic.
Not only doctors but other cadres that are important in the delivery of health
care. For doctors, we have been losing many that have been trained.”
Pate also said that Nigeria cannot afford to continue losing
its best brains to the developed countries.
He said: “Now to the Japa you talked about, it is not only
limited to Nigeria. It is a global phenomenon. Other countries don’t have
enough. They are asking to take more. It is not only in Nigeria. It is
happening in India, Philippines and other parts of Africa.
"In the last five years, we have lost about 15,000 to
16,000 and about 17,000 had been transferred. We’re barely managing. That’s why
expanding their training will become logical. The same thing with nurses and
midwives; they are also leaving. That’s why expanding the training is important
to ensure those still around are well trained.
"But there are also thousands more, which is what I was
trying to hint at, who are here. And despite the opportunity to travel abroad
did not leave and we don’t appreciate them. I’ll give you an example. The head
of the ICU at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, a very brilliant gentleman. I
met him in December and he said, ‘Four of my colleagues have left’ and I asked
to know why he has not left. He said ‘Look, this is my country. I want to serve
because health is a sector where there’s inherent motivation in those who
select to go in there.’ People don’t just go in there because they want to have
a job. They go because they’re intrinsically motivated and we have to recognise
and tap into that.
“We are beginning to take steps to expand the training and
work environment, taking some steps to encourage salaries and incomes
commission to do certain things that will encourage them to feel at home. But
even the issue of working hours that has come about recently, particularly for
the junior doctors, is being addressed.”
He continued: “We are beginning to take steps to expand the training and work environment, taking some steps to encourage salaries and incomes commission to do certain things that will encourage them to feel at home. But even the issue of working hours that has come about recently, particularly for the junior doctors, is being addressed.
'This is because when
some of their colleagues leave and they remain at home, the burden has not
reduced. And so they work extremely hard. We’ve listened to that. We are
looking at how we can alleviate that and with the Medical and Dental Council of
Nigeria, we are looking at how within the code of ethics and the guidelines for
the physician to provide some safeguards to ensure they are treated as valuable
assets so they are not burnt out.”
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