Ehanire confident Nigeria trains 3K doctors yearly, brain drain not an issue
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria trains 3,000 doctors yearly and the fewer than 1,000 who leave for greener pastures overseas every year is no cause for concern, says Health Minister Osagie Ehanire, himself a doctor.
He disclosed in Abuja there is no embargo on employing doctors, just that “because there is a Civil Service regulation, there are processes before doctors are employed.
“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.
“It is just that the employment process needs to be smoothened.”
___________________________________________________________
Related articles:
787 Nigerian doctors employed in UK in 7 months
Saudi Arabia recruits more Nigerian doctors. UK takes up 4,528 in six years
Canada seeks to fill 1m job vacancies – Nigerians wanted
_________________________________________________________________
Employment strategy
Ehanire said the ministry is working with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service to use the ‘One-for-One’ employment strategy so that if one doctor or nurse resigns to go abroad, another one is employed, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), via Nairametrics.
“So, if we have one replacement then you are not likely to have shortage.
“But that has been worked out because the Head of Service had the experience that in the past when one person goes, they use the opportunity to take three and those others may not even be people who are required.
“We want to use this policy so that we can reduce shortages and have our personnel back in our hospitals.”
Doctors serve strike notice over unpaid allowance
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has given a notice of two weeks to embark on strike if the government keeps on tarrying on the payment of the new hazard allowance it approved in December 2021.
But Deborah Bitrus-Oghoghorie of the Health Ministry’s Department of Hospital Services explained the demand is mainly about money which the ministry cannot solve on its own.
She said the ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to avert the strike.