By Cosmas Odoemena
It’s no longer news that Nigerian doctors are leaving the country in droves for greener pastures. According to the Nigerian Medical Association, of the 75,000 Nigerian doctors registered with the NMA, more than 33,000 have left the country, with 42,000 left to take care of more than 200 million people. It’s not only doctors that are leaving: nurses, physiotherapists, radiographers, pharmacists, medical laboratory scientists, etc. But this piece is focused mainly on doctors.
Brain drain among doctors is not a new phenomenon. In Nigeria, it has been ongoing for years. But it has never jolted the Nigerian healthcare system as it has now. This is because the number of doctors leaving has risen astronomically. Doctors are voting with their feet. Specialists, medical officers, retired doctors, and those fresh from medical schools are all leaving. In final-year medical school classes, migrating abroad after qualifying is what is trending.
Furthermore, the number of those
writing postgraduate exams to specialise is reducing and those who manage to
start, abandon it along the way to start afresh abroad. Every year, at least
2,000 doctors leave Nigeria for the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada,
South Africa, Europe, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South
Africa, Ghana, and some obscure countries.
The doctors who are abroad
constantly pressure their colleagues who have stayed back to join them. Even
when those in Nigeria remain resolute, the ones abroad will not give up. Some
abroad query the mental status of their colleagues still in Nigeria. They test
their resolve to stay and salvage it. They remind them of the poor working
conditions, low wages, insecurity, poverty in the land, and general
despondency. But one question that melts those remaining in Nigeria is: “Have
you thought of the future of your children?” They tell you where they are their
children are attending good schools and taken care of by the government. The
government gives them an allowance per child. And whenever these children
graduate from the universities, there are jobs. They conclude: “So, it’s not
about us, it’s about the children”.
Still, some, with a heavy heart,
stay back giving themselves unrealistic time for things to change. If the
endless wait for things to “change” has not nudged those doctors back home to
nibble at the emigration bait, another thing has. The shortage of doctors is
putting a lot of work pressure on the few doctors, with the attendant
exhaustion, burnout, stress, and other deleterious effect on their health. And
when they have had enough, they throw in the towel.
The effect on the healthcare
system is unquantifiable. What has helped some states is private hospitals
which not everyone can afford. But even now, the private hospitals are also
feeling the pinch. With private hospitals, there is a high doctor turnover.
Where the medical director cannot get a doctor to work for him, he works round
the clock. It is taking a toll on many an MD’s health. Some have closed their
private hospitals to relocate abroad. While all this is on, quacks and
charlatans fill the gap. No wonder, Nigeria’s health indices have continually
been abysmal.
It’s either government is
playing the ostrich or it is perplexed and does not know what to do. India once
experienced it but its government took the bull by the horns and today its
healthcare system is not only one of the best in the world, it is also a
foreign exchange earner in medical tourism. It is this same Nigeria only a few
years ago where Nigerians left abroad to come back home to take up higher
paying jobs in the banking sector, telecoms, human relations, oil and gas, and
other great startups. Deep inside, Nigerians abroad know there is no place like
home. They would readily stay back if the conditions were right.
The first thing to do is to
declare a state of emergency in the health sector. Convene a summit involving
stakeholders. There should be a health sector Marshall Plan. It must be said
that as long as doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are still under
government health ministries like civil servants, their wages will remain low
compared to those abroad. A new entity called Nigeria Healthcare Workforce
Agency should be created to take care of the recruitment and remuneration of doctors
and other allied healthcare workers. Each state and the Federal Capital
Territory should have theirs and it should be backed by law. It will have a
special budget.
In addition, the budgetary
allocation to health has to increase. In the 2023 budget, it’s just 5.75 per
cent and a far cry from the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of at
least 15 per cent. Government at all levels must rank health as the number one
priority before security. Now, Nigerian doctors retire at 60 to go abroad to continue
to work, where there is no age or sex discrimination. Government must as a
matter of urgency consider increasing the retirement age of doctors to 70
years. And ditto for allied professionals. And when they retire, they should
earn their full salaries until death as is done for Nigerian professors.
Children of doctors and allied workers can be
sponsored from kindergarten to secondary school and possibly up to the
university level. In addition, paid overseas annual vacation for doctors and
their families as it is done, especially in the Middle East, will not be a bad
idea. This will demystify going abroad. Then make good the overseas attachment
for resident doctors. Interest-free loans as India did for their doctors.
Special housing and car loans where the government pays a reasonable part of
it. If political officeholders in Nigeria are better paid than their
counterparts in other climes, then, there is a moral justification to pay
Nigerian doctors what they will get abroad. This is in addition to well-equipped
hospitals in a conducive environment.
Whatever it will take to heal
our sickly healthcare system must be done. And must be done quickly too, while
the “resolve” of doctors at home can still hold out!
*Dr.
Odoemena, a Consultant Family Physician and Fellow of the West African College
of Physicians ,wrote from Lagos.
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