• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Medical practitioner urges FG to improve wellbeing of doctors to check brain drain

Medical practitioner urges FG to improve wellbeing of doctors to check brain drain

Government has been urged to improve the wellbeing of medical doctors in the country to check brain drain.

Founder/CEO, ‘Market Doctor’, a social impact enterprise, Yetunde Ayo-Oyalowo made the call at an event she organised in appreciation and celebration of her organisation’s milestone in imparting lives.

According to Oyalowo who is a medical practitioner, doctors in Nigeria are not well compensated compared to the rigors they go through to become medical practitioners.

“When I talk about compensation, I am not only talking about income, I am talking about different aspects of compensation and enumerations, such as allowances, working conditions, because the training is extremely rigorous a lot and the work is extremely sensitive, and the reward for all of these should be very tangible. That’s why we are having the brain drain. The reason for brain drain is also not only about money, it is about the remuneration and conditions of service.”

She advised the government to refocus, and that putting up grandeurs projects, building 1000-bed hospitals and bringing in big equipment without doctors to operate them would be meaningless.

“People can’t afford to use these equipment. We need to go down to the grassroots. If it is well in the grassroots as regards tertiary care, then a lot of people would not even need the second or tertiary care that we are all checking after. Rather, we need to invest in our health workers. When I mean health workers, I am not talking only of doctors; I am also talking about community health workers, health extension workers, and paramedicals. We need to invest in them, they can do much more than they are doing. We are losing medical professionals into other teams, because there is no encouragement in the sector,” she said.

Read also: Global demand shift, brain drain and Nigeria’s employability problem

On her organisation which was established five years ago, she said it provides affordable and accessible basic healthcare to Nigerians, especially those in the informal sector, rural areas, and slums.

For her, the purpose is to serve people in need of care, with professionalism, igniting hope, and taking healthcare to the door steps of Nigerians without disturbing their day to day activities.

“We believe in a world where people can have access to basic health services irrespective of their location, religion, ethnic group and social class,” she said.

Oyalowo recalled that since the inception of “Market Doctors”, they have had over 100 partnerships, which include organisations, associations, companies, religious bodies, schools and even individuals.

Explaining the essence of the event which came under the theme, ‘Impact Luncheon,’ she said “it is to see how they can do much more. We have only scratched the surface. We need more companies, individuals, parastatals, and philanthropists to come in. Even government organisations that are looking to give back, we want to say that health is a way they can give back, and we have created a platform. People tend to give back when it comes to entertainment, give away things like generator, and so on.

“But healthcare is a way you can actually give back, and we are telling people when they are doing landmark birthday, to come and donate health-wise to the communities. We call it birthday blessings.”