Brain drain leaves Nigeria with a doctor-patient ratio 7x above global standard
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Brain drain in the medical sector has left Nigeria with actively licensed 24,000 doctors for a population of more than 200 million, which translates into an average doctor-patient ratio of 1:10,000.
However, the detailed figure is a ratio of 1:30,000 in some states in the South and 1:45,000 in some states in the North.
This is over seven times more than the doctor-patient ratio of 1:600 recommended for every country by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) President Ojinmah Uche disclosed his country’s figures in Abuja at a policy dialogue on health sector brain drain and its implications for sustainable child and family health service delivery.
The event was organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Partnership for Advancing Child and Family Health at Scale project of the development Research and Projects Centre.
“So in eight years, USA produced and acquired (brain drain) more doctors than Nigeria has produced from 1963-2021 (58 years), Uche said.
“The real shocker comes when you note that what was reflected by the USA record were ‘actively licensed physicians’ not just those registered to practice.
“At this juncture, I leave to your imagination the number of actively licensed physicians in Nigeria relative to those registered to practice as stated above.
“Available data places it around 24,000 giving a horrible true ratio of approximately 1:10,000. This ratio of 1:10,000 is a national average but in most states, the situation is palpably worse.”
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The North is worse off
Uche lamented the situation is worse in the North where one doctor is available to treat 45,000 and in rural areas where people travel more than 30 kilometres to access a healthcare facility, per reporting by Vanguard.
“Only one doctor is incredibly available to treat 30,000 patients in some states in the South, while states in the North are as worse as one doctor to 45,000 patients.
“In some rural areas, patients have to travel more than 30 kilometres from their abodes to get medical attention where available thus making access to healthcare a rarity.
“Based on WHO established minimum threshold, a country needs a mix of 23 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 population to deliver essential maternal and child health services.
“This explains why Nigeria ranks as one of the countries with the worst maternal and child mortality rates.”
