Nasarawa loses 22 doctors to Saudi Arabia, UK, and other states in Nigeria
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), Lafia has in the past five months lost 22 doctors – an average of 4.4 per month – who left for Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom for better conditions of service. Some relocated to other states in Nigeria.
Chief Medical Director Hassan Ikrama disclosed this during an award ceremony for the hospital staff who worked during Covid and Lassa fever outbreaks in Nasarawa.
“One of the main challenges facing the hospital now is brain drain. It used to be the brain drain that we hear in other places, but we are at the theatre of war.
“DASH has lost in five months 22 medical doctors who left for Saudi Arabia and the UK while some left for other areas within the country,” he said.
“So, everybody is stretched; but we are moving on and will continue to offer the services. Luckily enough, we have already gotten the approval for the replacement of those people that have left.”
Despite the brain drain, he stressed, the hospital has made a lot of progress by getting accreditation in five departments from just one when he took over three years ago.
“We have been able to also get six consultants in the last two exams and a lot of progress has been made in the area of research with 15 papers presented so far.”
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Reward for hard work
About 51 medical personnel were rewarded. Two doctors, Was Ogah and Victor Nwatu; and a nurse, Ibrahim Oshafu, were given posthumous awards.
Ikrama said those honoured recorded unprecedented success in handling Covid cases, sacrificing themselves even when the scourge was seen to be complicated, especially the containment, per reporting by The Nation.
The pandemic isolation centre team worked tirelessly round the clock to fight the spread of the virus and treat those infected, he added, noting that 2019 and 2020 were trying times for health workers everywhere as the pandemic ravaged the world.
“The management of COVID-19 cases in DASH was superb and we received commendations from many places, including from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, on how we handled the cases.”
Award Committee Chairman Agbawu Mek-Agbawu said the selection of recipients was based on merit and urged other members of staff to step up their duties to be among awardees in the next edition.