HWNHIGHLIGHT: The report the other day, that some 3,936 Nigerian doctors; most of them trained in Nigeria, are now practicing in the United Kingdom is lamentable and most embarrassing to the country. Added to the estimated 4,000 Nigerian doctors practicing in the USA, the bad news was one more reminder, if at all another was needed, that the problem of brain drain in the health sector, is now assuming a worrisome dimension. President Goodluck Jonathan must address this anomaly quickly, not only for its implication for the health of Nigerians, but also for its potential political mileage and goodwill. Nigeria will stand or fall on account of how it tackles the challenges in the health sector; and the measures taken to reverse the present trend, where Nigeria is producing medical doctors for other countries. The country deserves nothing less from a transformational president. The British National Health Service (NHS) fact sheet on the number of registered doctors in 2012 published by the Daily Mail online showed that India tops the list with 25,336 doctors; Pakistan (8998); South Africa (5695); Ireland (4010); Nigeria (3936); Germany (3291); Egypt (3141); Greece (2711); Italy (2499); and Sri Lanka (2335). Others include: Sudan (1418); Libya (727); Burma (691); Syria (671); Cayman Islands (28); Kazakhstan (26); Liberia (9); Burundi (8); and Haiti (4). Reacting to the report, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, blamed the heart-rending situation on poor conditions of service for medical doctors and other health workers. According to Dr. Enabulele, Nigeria currently has about 71,740 medical and dental practitioners listed on the official register of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), with less than half of them (about 27, 000) currently practicing in Nigeria. This indicates a doctor-patient ratio of one doctor for 6,187 patients; assuming the population of Nigeria to be 167 million. Other reports suggest that over 15,000 Nigeria-trained medical doctors are practicing abroad. This is unacceptable! “The fact that over 3000 Nigeria-trained doctors are currently practicing in Britain speaks volume on the poor work environment and poor job satisfaction among the medical workforce in Nigeria. There are certainly real suffocating challenges in Nigeria and indeed in the nation’s healthcare system which continually promote the huge emigration of doctors to other countries with better work environment and satisfactory conditions of service. Until governments at the local, state and federal levels are able to effectively handle the various factors ... that promote the daily emigration of medical doctors/dentists to other countries, Nigeria may continue to serve as a manufacturing plant for the production of medical doctors/dentists for the healthcare systems of developed countries,” Dr. Enabulele lamented. This is merely stating the obvious. In addition to his lamentations, it is hoped that the NMA president and the healthcare establishment will devise ways of dealing with the bad situation. It is doubly insulting to the intelligence of Nigerians that senior public officials; whose duty it is, in the first instance, to raise the standard of health care delivery in the country, have become notorious for seeking medical attention outside Nigeria. According to the NMA, over 5,000 Nigerians travel to India and other countries monthly for medical treatment. The association reported that, Nigeria loses over $500m annually to this unhealthy practice, with $260m going to India. This unwholesome attitude by public officials is no doubt strengthened by the fact that the cost of such treatment is borne by the taxpayer. The import of government’s heavy spending on overseas medical treatment for its officials, at the expense of equipping local hospitals, is the erroneous impression that public officers are more important than those who voted them into such offices. Government ordinarily should spend the $500m to equip public hospitals and raise them to world class standards. In the face of this embarrassment, however, the Nigerian government has its work well defined. Local hospitals are not short of qualified personnel as Nigerian doctors are amongst the best in many parts of the world. The tragic irony is that most of the hospitals Nigerian leaders travel to, for medical attention are manned by Nigerian doctors some of who were trained in various teaching hospitals at home, before they migrated out of the country due to poor working conditions. Worse still, those teaching hospitals have become a ghost of themselves due to years of neglect. And that is the risk ordinary Nigerians are exposed to. Many Nigerians have been sent to untimely demise on account of wrong diagnosis and poor state of local hospitals. The government needs to create good conditions for developing medical practice. In most Nigerian hospitals, doctors work under terrible conditions. That is the reason people are traveling abroad, although the attitude of government officials in this respect is detestable. For a start, government should embargo overseas medical treatment for all public officials. Anyone who, in his judgment, feels that only foreign treatment will meet his/her needs should do so at his/her own expense. This will curb frivolous trips abroad and halt the major drain it has constituted on scarce foreign exchange. The action would no doubt concentrate government’s attention on Nigerian hospitals, which need adequate and thorough face-lift, away from the decrepit and comatose infrastructures that have rendered service delivery in those hospitals prostrate. The government should also identify the areas of strength of some of the existing teaching hospitals, consolidate their competences in those areas and designate them as specialist centers. The country needs well thought-out policies that will create enabling environment for entrepreneurs to fund the establishment of world class hospitals, as obtainable in other countries. At a time in this country, the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, reached the towering and enviable height of being the 7th best hospital in the Commonwealth countries. A government that has its eyes on history will strive to re-enact this feat on public hospitals. What is required is a committed and purposeful leadership.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 10:51:34 +0000
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