Experts in the Nigeria’s health sector have raised expressed concern about the future of Nigeria’s healthcare industry as medical professionals continue to leave the country in droves with the government doing little to curtail the menace.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), a professional association Nigerian doctors and dentists Nigeria has about 72,000 medical doctors registered with only approximately 35,000 practicing in Nigeria.
It is estimated that about 20,000 medical doctors are currently working outside the country and recent survey shows another 9 in 10 are looking to leave the country for greener pastures therefore compounding brain drain.
They say the country needs more investment if it’s to employ its growing population while calling the government to urgently develop and implement strategies to address the issue.
“Nigeria will continue to incur losses for every doctor that emigrates, as the country is being deprived of billions of dollars’ worth of invaluable investments embodied in their human resources” Larne Yusuf, a medical practitioner based in Lagos said.
Yusuf also said that the continually ignored current trend of scarce human resources for health professionals from Nigeria is not been curtailed which does not bode well for the country.
“Continued lack of investments in human resources contributes to further underdevelopment of the country and will keep her people in the vicious of poverty,” Yusuf said.
The unfriendly work environment has implied that health workers in Nigeria continually find every possible way to exit the country, leaving behind a health system which many say is simply not working; not for the patients and not for the medical practitioners.
Human resources management in the healthcare sector is constrained by inadequate infrastructure, poor human resources planning and management practices and structures; unsatisfactory working conditions characterised by heavy workloads, lack of professional autonomy, poor supervision and support, long working hours, unsafe workplaces, inadequate career structures poor working conditions and poor compensation packages have contributed to the emigration from the country of a sizeable number of surgeons, physicians, nurses and other medical professionals.
According to experts, going by the population of about 190 million, it means the country would need about 303,333 medical doctors now and at least 10,605 new doctors annually to join the workforce stating that only at this level can Nigeria expect good quality patient care that is not compromised by errors occasioned by fatigued and overworked medical doctors.
Ademola Aina, chairman the Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria (HCPAN) said that with healthcare professionals already insufficient in the world, the situation across Nigeria is no better as trends in human resources for the health sector has been a barrier to effective planning in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
“The fundamental problem is that medical staff and students are leaving the country all together to train in countries like the US and UK, and then never returning to work in their own communities,” he said.
Reports show that Nigerian medical professionals seek work opportunities in United Kingdom, United States of America and other countries.
The implication of the continuous migration is that there will not be enough doctor to service the ever growing population, as it will further worsen the physician-patient ratio in Nigeria from 1:4,000 to 1:5,000, contrary to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended 1:600.
Commenting on the way forward Aina said to reverse this trend, we know that practicing in developed countries is far more lucrative than practicing here in Nigeria, we need to encourage them to return to practice in their states, this will not be easy but with collaboration and efforts intrude by the government in remunerations and addressing these factors causing their departure, there will be improvement
“We need to address the financial incentives that lure an inadequately large number of Nigerian doctors and also government can imposed t a well-constructed scholarship system to train medical students; this will pay the cost of allowing them practice medicine overseas,” Olawale Oba , president Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at Lagos state teaching hospital (LUTH).
Doyin Odubanjo, Chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter, says Nigeria have something to gain from globally sustainable medical-training practices, which will ensure that the countries’ health-care needs are met.
if we need to make a difference in our health indices, we need to move out and deliver care in the rural areas adding that the challenges were not as much as in the urban areas as they are in the rural areas.”
“Our disease burden continues to be dominated by preventable and easily treatable diseases. The persistent burden of childhood, communicable diseases for which preventive and simple curative measures are widely available. Maternal mortality continues to be a major problem,” he said.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
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