Efforts are ongoing to tackle the dearth of medical doctors in Nigeria, the federal government has said.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa made this known on Wednesday in Abuja, saying part of the plan is to increase the enrolment quota for medical schools in the country.
Nigerian hospitals have been faced with shortages of medical doctors after many doctors left their jobs to seek better opportunities abroad.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, no fewer than 5,600 Nigerian medical doctors have migrated to the United Kingdom, UK, in the last eight years.
The implication is that Nigeria now suffers from insufficient doctors and has a doctor-patient ratio over five times worse than what the World Health Organisation, WHO, recommends.
Experts in the sector insist that the brain in the sector will get worse as the number of doctors leaving the country is bound to increase.
Speaking on how to address the problem, the minister said part of the strategy being adopted by the government is to double the population of medical and dental doctors from 5,000 to 10,000 from the next academic year.
This will be done by increasing admission into the medical and dental schools in the country, Alausa stated at the induction ceremony of foreign-trained medical and dental graduates by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, in the nation’s capital.
He explained that the 3000 medical doctors produced annually in the country are no longer adequate for the expanding health sector, adding that good incentives for medical staff would to their exodus to Europe, the US, and Asia where they are well remunerated.
He said the federal government “shall expand these opportunities to all other health professionals like pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, community health extension workers, radiographers, and others. Although, this will be in phases. We shall create room to produce more and excess because globally, there’s a shortage of health manpower, which has been estimated at a shortage of 18 million people.”
According to the figures provided by the NMA, In 2015, 233 Nigerian doctors moved to the UK; in 2016 the number increased to 279; in 2017 the figure was 475, in 2018, the figure rose to 852, in 2019 it jumped to 1,347; in 2020, the figure was 833 and in 2021 was put at 932.
Over 2000 doctors, according to the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, left the country last year.
