A recent report by the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has shown that the country lost over 500 highly-skilled medical and dental consultants to other more developed countries within two years.
A further exploration of data by the association’s Medical Education Committee showed that nine out of every 10 medical and dental consultants with less than five years’ experience on the job had plans to leave the country.
To reduce the worrisome trend, the MDCAN,
In a statement by its President, Dr. Victor Makanjuola, MDCAN said it would assemble relevant stakeholders in the Health sector for Summit on December 6 in Abuja to brainstorm on a workable solution to the trend.
Makanjuola said: “A large proportion of the newly engaged healthcare workforce in most high-income countries come from the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) who ordinarily have fewer healthcare workforce relative to their source countries’ high disease burden.
“Disturbed by the impact of this ugly trend on our country’s Health sector growth and development, the MDCAN conducted a survey amongst its chapters in March 2022 and found that over 500 medical and dental consultants had left Nigeria for more developed countries over the preceding two years.
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“Furthermore, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) recently reported that only 24,000 doctors are currently registered to practise in Nigeria, giving a ratio of one doctor to over 8,000 Nigerians, against the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended ratio of one doctor to every 600 people.
“It is important to note that the average medical and dental consultant is not only a clinician but also doubles as a teacher for medical students and doctor in specialist (residency) training.
“It, therefore, goes without saying that the loss of this category of highly-skilled workforce to other countries will not only have an immediate negative impact on clinical service delivery but will leave a long-term, devastating impact on the training of future doctors in Nigeria.”
Story By
Moses Emorinken, Abuja and Chinyere Okoroafor