‘Nigeria needs 10 years to replace 500 migrating doctors’

The President of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria, Prof. Aminu Muhammad, has said that it would take Nigeria 10 years to replace the 500 Doctors who recently left Nigeria in search of greener pastures.

Muhammad was speaking on Sunday against the backdrop of findings by the association from 50 out of 80 chapters confirmed that no fewer than 500 medical personnel have left the shore of Nigeria to the outside world.

The president who was fielding questions from newsmen shortly after he read a Communique of the Biennial Delegates Meeting of the Association held in Kano, lamented that the alarming exodus of Specialists out of the country painted a dark future for the health sector in the country.

He stressed that according to statistics available to them, more than 500 Medical Consultants have migrated out of the country in search of greener pastures elsewhere.

According to him, Nigeria has continued to produce the finest and highest numbers of clinical experts, graduates, and postgraduates in sub-Saharan Africa, who are currently breaking records all over the world.

The communique reads, “Medical education is under threat, mainly due to the largest number of specialists and trainers migrating to other climes.”

“The challenges of brain drain in the health sector have remained unabated with the migration of highly skilled health care professionals not only out of Africa but, also to neighboring west Africa”

The communique has called for a synergy between teaching hospitals, universities, and regulatory bodies which has contributed to the failure to optimise the potential for increasing the quality of medical students.

Similarly, the communique urged the government to organise all stakeholders towards revamping Nigeria’s healthcare system through the provision of affordable and accessible healthcare delivery in the country.

“Government is urged to, as a matter of urgency, provide holistic solutions to the challenges of brain drain, which should include an incentive that encourages retaliation of the already depleted health care human resources in Nigeria”