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15000 Medical Doctors Dump Naija For Foreign Countries by BOLAUWA: 8:45pm On May 05, 2017 |
15,000 Doctors Dump Nigeria for Overseas
Posted: 05/May/2017
* 500 take exams to relocate in 2017
* 700 doctors leave every year –NMA
* Stakeholders lament brain drain
* Doctors protest 22 months unpaid salaries
No fewer than 15,000 medical doctors have left Nigeria for
overseas in search of greener pastures. A reliable source at
the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) told New
Telegraph that “over 15,000 doctors have travelled out of
Nigeria to developed countries where they are now
practising medicine.”
President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr.
Mike Ogirima, confirmed that between 10,000 and 15,000
Nigerian doctors are working outside the country. Ogirima
told New Telegraph that about 90 per cent of those working
outside the country are trained in Nigeria where they
acquired their capacity.
The NMA President noted that between 40,000 and 60,000
doctors are working in the country.
Ogirima said: “Nigeria has trained these doctors while other
countries are making use of them. That is a sad thing. Of
course in a country where the working environment is not
conducive, what do you expect? “So, we expect the
government to improve the working environment, provide
the necessary tools for the doctors to work with and give
them needed welfare to encourage them to stay in the
country.”
Just last month, over 500 doctors took examination for
possible recruitment placement abroad.
For Nigerian doctors looking for employment in the United
States, they write the United States Medical Licensing
Examination, while those seeking employment opportunities
in the United Kingdom write examination with the
Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB).
Unfortunately, the conditions driving the migration have
worsened with more doctors working for several months in
the country without salaries.
While providing an insight into the trend, a top member of
the NMA told New Telegraph that in 2015, a total number of
715 doctors departed the shores of Nigeria, seeking greener
pastures in foreign countries.
“Annually, the number of Nigerian doctors departing the
country to work abroad ranges between 500 to 700,” a top
NMA official told our correspondent. Giving details of the
doctor’s migration, a medical doctor who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, said more Nigerian doctors move to
the UK while a fewer number go to Canada.
“Their final destination is, however, the United States (U.S.),
which offers them better remuneration and welfare package.
“For these Nigerian doctors, working in the UK, Canada and
other countries, including the Caribbean, working in these
foreign nations is a stepping stone,” he said.
The source added that foreign doctors, including the ones
from Nigeria, don’t enter the U.S. directly. According to the
source, “Migrating doctors have to go through UK, Canada
and later enter the U.S. It’s easier to go to the UK, but the
population of Nigerian doctors in the U.S. is more.
“The final destination of majority of doctors leaving Nigeria
for greener pastures is the U.S., because that is the country
that pays more.” Explaining the migration, the member of
NMA said going to the Caribbean to practice has been on
with Nigerian doctors for a long time, but usually, that is not
their final destination. When these doctors want to settle
down, they usually move further to the U.S. and Canada.
The source noted that
not all the doctors in
the country, an
estimated 40,000,
practice medicine.
Some have since left
the medical field to
venture into other
areas, some don’t
renew their registration while some are dead.
The doctors’ migration to overseas countries has, however
resulted in huge workload for the medical practitioners that
are left behind. Presently, the doctor-patient ratio in Nigeria
is one doctor to 4,250 patients, which is far below the World
Health Organisation (WHO), recommended one doctor to not
more than 600 patients.
On the contrary, Dr. Adeyeye Arigbabuwo, immediate past
chairman, Association of General Private Medical
Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), Lagos State Chapter said
some countries have achieved better doctor-patient ratio.
“Cuba has the best doctorpatient ratio – one to 170; that of
the United States (U.S.) is one doctor to 390 patients; while
in Australia, the ratio is one doctor to 400 patients,” he
asserted.
According to Arigbabuwo, Africa especially south of the
Sahara, is mainly vulnerable to poor doctorpatient ratio. “It is
where we have bad doctor-patient ratio,” he added.
Stakeholders have raised the alarm over the continued mass
exodus of Nigerian medical doctors from the country for
greener pastures abroad. The stakeholders are also calling
for a better welfare and improved working conditions to
check the dangerous trend. Prof. Mosto Onuoha, the
president of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS),
described the migration of medical doctors abroad as “a real
problem.”
Highlighting the enormity of the challenge, he related the
experience of a young frustrated Nigerian doctor, who
decided to go for an examination, a prerequisite for Nigerian
doctors to practice medicine in the United Kingdom.
“This doctor went for this examination last month and the
first surprise he had was that there were over 500 Nigerian
doctors that came for it. “So, it is a serious problem and it is
one that we at the NAS, and even me as the President of
NAS, are concerned about,” Onuoha told New Telegraph.
Speaking on the menace, the president of the NAS lamented
that the medical doctors that are leaving Nigeria to practice
abroad are the young ones, especially those that are very
intelligent.
“They are the ones that are capable of passing the
prerequisite examinations. We are losing most of the
brightest doctors that we have,” he said.
The other group that Nigeria is losing, according to him, is
the affluent doctors whose parents are wealthy, because
they can afford to send their doctor sons and daughters for
educational programmes in developed countries.
Highlighting other factors driving this migration, Onuoha
stated that many doctors who graduated for the past three
to four years cannot get health facilities as placement for
Residency training. “Most of the state hospitals available are
not accredited for Residency Programmes,” he lamented.
Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident
is one who holds the degree of MBBS, who practices
medicine usually in a hospital or clinic under the direct or
indirect supervision of an attending physician. During the six-
year period of the Residency training, the Residents
specialise in a particular field of medicine such as
orthopaedics, cardiology, ophthalmology, etc.
Another category of doctors the nation is losing are
consultants, most of whom get frustrated because they just
watch their patients die as a result of poor working
environment and dilapidated working tools.
Furthermore, Onuoha blamed the problem on limited
hospitals that employ doctors. Federal Government is their
major employer, he said, adding that although private
hospitals are thriving, many of them in Abuja and Lagos are
not employing many doctors. He lamented that some of the
few facilities that employ doctors in Nigeria owe salaries for
several months.
Onuoha said: “As I speak with you, I know teaching hospitals
that are paying employed doctors fractions of their salary,
ranging from 70 per cent to 80 per cent. Many doctors in
Nigeria work for several months without salaries.”
Highlighting factors driving the migration, Dr. Arigbabuwo
attributed the trend mainly to economic interest, saying
those working in Nigeria do not have good incentives.
“There are no incentives for the doctors to go to the rural
areas and practice,” Arigbabuwo told New Telegraph. A
Consultant Paediatric Haematologic Oncologist and former
Chairman of Lagos NMA, Prof. Edamisan Temiye, blamed
the migration of Nigerian doctors abroad on the hostile
working environment in Nigeria. He said: “There are no
amenities to work with. It starts with electricity, water supply
to the provision of equipment to carry out treatment on
patients.”
What is happening, according to the former Chairman of
Lagos NMA, is that the Nigerian doctors are well trained, but
not given equipment to work with.
Temiye noted that another reason for the migration is that
everybody in Nigeria “wants to be the doctor,” adding that
the competition is unhealthy and it is only in Nigeria that
such competition is seen. On measures to halt this trend,
the president of NAS called for the harmonisation of
Residency training in Nigeria. According to Onuoha, most of
the time, some Resident Doctors in Nigeria write the
examinations to qualify them as consultants four to five
times without passing and end up getting frustrated.
“You find them leaving the country to go and practice
abroad. Something needs to be done about their training.
That is why often times, the resident doctors are on strike,”
he said. He urged the government to pay doctors salaries as
and when due as well as look into the various agreements it
signed with different professional associations in the health
sector with a view to addressing their problems.
“We cannot continue to have the Nigerian doctors’ exodus
that is on now; it is not healthy for any country,” the NAS
President stated. Speaking in similar vein, the immediate
former 2nd Vice Chairman of the NMA in Lagos State, Dr.
Olusegun Akinwotu, urged government and stakeholders to
ensure the provision of adequate remuneration for doctors
in the country.
“This (remuneration) is the most attractive factor driving
Nigerian doctors to emigrate abroad,” he said. Akinwotu
called for improved training for Nigerian doctors so that they
can work with their contemporaries anywhere in the world.
By: Appolonia Adeyemi |
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