Dr. Tunji Alausa, an accomplished medical practitioner and a ministerial nominee for the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu, has called for an overhaul and an upgrade of the healthcare infrastructure in the country as a solution to the mass exodus of medical doctors out of the country.
Dr. Alausa, a nominee from Lagos State and a U.S.-certified nephrologist, said this on Friday while entertaining questions from members of the Senate Ministerial Nominee Committee.
He pinpointed the poor state of healthcare infrastructure as one of the main reasons why many medical practitioners have left the country for greener pastures (Japa).
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He decried the poor state of health facilities and called for increased investment from the government at all levels to prioritise spending in healthcare.
“They don’t have adequate infrastructure in Nigeria, and that is why we see the massive migration of doctors out of the country,” he said.
“We need to fix our healthcare infrastructure and, beyond that, compensate our physicians adequately.”
He added that once the infrastructure and manpower are properly taken care of, the mass migration of doctors out of the country will automatically go down.
Dr. Alausa also urged the country to work towards engaging the services of Nigerian doctors in the diaspora, but admitted that that can only be possible when the right environment is created.
Another important suggestion he made was to increase the training capacity of our medical schools. He urged the government to increase this number so that we can chunk out a larger number of medical practitioner graduates.
He said that the government can make this possible by increasing funding for medical schools.
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