The rate at which Nigerian doctors are leaving the country in search of greener pastures abroad is indeed alarming. It should be of concern to every Nigerian, as their health need is increasingly coming under pressure.Â
Indeed, this poses great danger to Nigeria as a whole as healthcare is an important sector of the nation.
According to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, Nigeria has lost about 15,000 to 16,000 doctors to the Japa syndrome (migration) in the last five years.
He disclosed this on Sunday, March 10, when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Pate said the brain drain syndrome has robbed the health sector of its best hands.
Also, the minister explained that there are 300,000 health professionals in Nigeria but only 55,000 of them are doctors.
“There are about 300,000 health professionals working in Nigeria today in all cadres. I am talking about doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and others.
“We did an assessment and discovered we have 85,000 to 90,000 registered Nigerian doctors.
“Not all of them are in the country. Some are in the Diaspora, especially in the US and UK. But there are 55,000 licensed doctors in the country.
“The issue overall, in terms of health professionals, is that they are not enough. They are insufficient in terms of the skills mix.
“Can you believe most of the high skilled professional doctors are in Lagos, Abuja and a few urban centres? There is a huge distribution issue.
“The population of doctor overall is about 7,600 doctors in Lagos and 4,700 or thereabout in Abuja. The doctor to population ratio in Abuja is 14.7 per 10,000 population.
These are numbers that you can verify. In Lagos, it is about 4.6, even though the average is 2.2 by 10,000.
“There are huge distributional issues, and they are, of course, the opportunities even for some of those who have been trained to get into the market.
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“So, you have to look at it from a perspective that is holistic. Not only doctors but other cadres that are important in the delivery of health care.
“For doctors, we have been losing many that have been trained.”
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