Doctors not enough, based on documented facts
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A claim by Health Minister Osagie Ehanire, a medical doctor, that Nigeria has enough doctors has been shredded by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) quoting facts on record with both the government and global bodies.
“We have heard complaints of doctors who are now leaving the system but there are actually enough doctors in the system because we are producing up to 2,000 or 3,000 doctors every year in the country, and the number leaving is less than 1,000”, Ehanire declared in Abuja on Tuesday.
NMA President Uche Ojinmah insisted a country with a doctor/patient ratio of 1:450,000/5,000 against 1:600 recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) cannot claim to have no enough doctors for a population of 200 million.
“I don’t think he [Ehanire] is serious about that …. He must have been misquoted because from 1960 to 2020, we have produced recorded over 80,000 doctors and 5,000 dentists registered with the Medical and Dental Council,” countered in an interview Vanguard published today.
“When you remove those that have died, those that have left the profession and those that have joined politics as well as those that have stopped practising, it will come down to about 40,000 or 50,000 doctors.
“Today, out of this number left, almost 20,000 have left the country, leaving us with about 20,000 to 25,000 doctors to cater for over 200 million Nigerians. This will give us a ratio of about 1 doctor to 450,000 or 5000 patients.
“The WHO ratio is 1 to 600 and this is the yawning gap and the Minister feels that 2000 to 3000 doctors produced in a year can cover the gap.”
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Losing consultants with 20 years of experience
Ojinmah argued that even if Nigeria produces 2,000 to 3,000 medical doctors annually, they cannot replace consultants who have between 15 and 20 years of experience whom Nigeria loses to other countries, according to Vanguard.
“The Minister is also looking at it from the perspective of numbers. He is not looking at the level of experience of those that are leaving the country.
“Even if we agree that the 2,000 to 3,000 doctors are enough, these are doctors that will go for house jobs, and then go for youth service and you are using it to equate consultants, medical officers, long time medical officers, paediatricians, et al that are leaving the country.”
He said the government fails to acknowledge there is a problem and fails to apply the solutions, which are salary increase, provision of appropriate equipment, and making the hospital environment conducive to fighting insecurity.
“We do not agree with the Minister based on the facts available to us. Go and check the number of doctors who have registered with the UK Medical Council in the past two weeks. They are over 260 doctors and that is just in the UK.
“I am not talking about America and Canada. Canada is coming down and taking them and running away. I want to believe that the Minister of Health was misquoted.”
Ojinmah urged the government to tackle brain drain in the health sector by addressing factors pushing doctors out of the country.