President of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria,Ijanikin, Lagos State, Prof. Akin Osibogun, has stressed the need for government to put mechanisms in place to ensure doctors are retained in the country.
He noted that it was imperative to train and retain skilled manpower in the health sector, adding that financial and non financial incentives would curb the Japa syndrome.
Osibogun said between 30,000 and 40,000 doctors had left the country in search of greener pastures.
He spoke at a news briefing on Tuesday to announce the College’s 41st convocation. Osibogun noted that 413 new postgraduate fellows and 92 Doctors of Medicine would convocate today.
Osibogun, a Professor of Public Health at College of Medicine,LUTH said compelling doctors to work for five years before going abroad was a ‘misapplication of justice’, adding that it was not in compliance with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards.
A bill aimed at curtailing the influx of Nigerian-trained medical and dental practitioners to foreign countries was passed at the House of Representatives in April.
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He said the main challenge in the college was not having enough people to train because as the doctors graduate, they leave the country.
“To address the problem we need to keep training more and retain more in the country through provision of financial and non-financial incentives by the governments.
“Every medical doctors need to enjoy the work they are doing for best and successful productivity at various hospitals.
“There is need for improvement of better work environment,providing more facilities at the hospitals especially the teaching and general hospitals.
“We need to put in place mechanism that are skilled manpower so they can remain in the country because some of our sisters countries in West Africa are already putting use of manpower,” he said.
He said the college had produced over 8,500 medical specialists for the country,adding that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) should recognise its role as inter-university centre.