NMA says many doctors in Nigeria unemployed
NMA sas many doctors in Nigeria jobless, despite uproar about emigration
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Many qualified doctors in Nigeria are not employed, despite anxiety about those leaving for overseas, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) President Uche Ojinmah has disclosed.
Ojinmah expressed concern over the exodus of medical workers to greener pastures, which prompted Ganiyu Johnson to sponsor a bill in the House of Representatives for a mandatory five-year practice in Nigeria by new graduate doctors before being issued a full practicing licence.
The bill has passed second reading in the House.
Ojinmah disclosed on Channels Television that even with the high number of doctors going abroad there are still many of them unemployed in Nigeria.
“Even based on the fact that doctors are leaving, some are still not employed and there is a story of one-for-one policy that they will start replacing those that leave immediately.
“Meanwhile, the policy has been on the drawing board for months and nothing is happening,” he complained.
He urged the government not to cut the head off to cure a headache, stressing jobs and good remuneration should be given to doctors still seeking employment in the country.
He said the ratio of doctors in rural areas and conflict zones is far worse.
“When you talk of rural areas, you may be talking about one to 9,000. When you talk of these areas where there is banditry and terrorism, it may be one in 20,000 or more.”
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Faulty NASS logic
Ojinmah insisted the logic being presented [in the House of Representatives] in support of the bill does not make sense because it is discriminatory, per Vanguard.
“If everybody is being subsidised, you cannot in a discriminatory manner go down to a few people.
“All that we have come to realise is that doctors are important just like other healthcare workers and the solution is to make a man that is important feel that he belongs to you.
“The pull factors are those things that are outside that are making them go, which is not within our control; while the push factors are the things within our control that are pushing them out of Nigeria.
“The first push factor is poverty. A newly trained doctor [abroad] is earning about £40,000 (about N22 million at official exchange rate) per annum while our own is earning about N3 million to N3.6 million per annum.
“A fresh doctor in Nigeria earns in a year what a fresh doctor in the UK earns in a month.”
Ojinmah also blamed the taxation policy in Nigeria which he said is heavy on doctors, and “we are treated like we are common and now they are crying that we should be held hostage.”
And he complained about insecurity, arguing that doctors are being targeted by criminals.
He lamented there is no equipment for doctors to work with in most hospitals in Nigeria.
At least 13,609 Nigerian doctors have emigrated to the UK alone in the past eight years, accounting for the third highest number of foreign doctors in that country, behind doctors from Pakistan and India.
The doctor to patient ratio in Nigeria is currently 1:5,000 – far beyond the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) of 1:600.