The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), has reacted to a claim made by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, that there were sufficient doctors in the nation. According to the NMA stated, based on the facts available to them, the country does not have enough medical doctors.
Speaking in an interview, Dr. Uche Ojinmah the president of the NMA, who assumed the minister may have been misinterpreted, stated that a country with a ratio of 1 doctor to 450,000–5000 patients compare to the WHO’s ratio of 1 doctor to 600 patients—would not have enough doctors to care for a population of more than 200 million people.
‘I don’t think he (minister) is serious about that but the fundamental thing here is that don’t want enough doctors. 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.’
The number will decrease to approximately 40 or 50,000 doctors when you take out those who have died recently, abandoned their professions, entered politics, and/or stopped practicing.
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He further added that; ‘Nearly 20,000 of those who were still here have since left the country, leaving us with between 20,000 and 25,000 doctors to care for more than 200 million Nigerians. We will have a ratio of approximately 1 doctor to 450,001 or 5,000 patients as a result. The Minister believes that the 1 to 600 WHO ratio—a yawning gap—can be filled by the 2000–3000 doctors produced annually.’
Even though Nigeria produces between 2,000 and 3,000 medical practitioners each year, according to him, they are unable to replace the specialists with up to 15 to 20 years of expertise that the nation loses to other nations as a result of low pay, the unfavorable business climate, and security concerns.
He said: ‘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 agreed 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 etc that are leaving the country.’
The government, according to Ojinmah, is avoiding figuring a solution to the situation, which is raising salaries, providing the necessary equipment, and creating a hospital environment that encourages the fight against insecurity on a national scale. Ojinmah claimed that the government does not want to admit that there is a challenge.
‘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 the only 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.’
In order to address the issues driving doctors out of the country, he urged the federal government to solve the fundamental issue behind the medical sector’s brain drain.