President, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMC) Ijanikin Prof Opubo da Lilly-Tariah has expressed worry over the spate of brain drain in the medical field.
Lilly-Tariah said the institution fears that the rate at which doctors-in-training seek greener pastures outside Nigeria is worrisome and has more disadvantages than merits.
Lilly-Tariah spoke at the college’s 36th convocation at its Ijanikin premises.
Lilly-Tariah said rate of emigration of doctors went up during the economic downturn of the late 80s and 90s, adding that it was the college that rose to salvage it through production of more to replace those that left.
However, he warned that the flight of doctors from Nigeria was happening at a dangerous rate.
“The process of our trained doctors leaving the shores of the land for greener pasture is not peculiar to us. It has its benefits and drawbacks.
“The products of this college were once able to replace the lost positions. Today, the country is faced with another brain drain. The search for safety of work, well-being, disease and peace are intrinsic to mankind,” he added.
Lilly-Tariah noted that iunlike in the past when specialists left the country in droves, the new trend was that doctors-in-training were the ones leaving
“This is a worrisome situation. The reasons these things happen are all well known. These include but not limited to no jobs, no job security, poor pay, poor facilities for practice, general insecurity and low sense of patriotism, ” he lamented.
The combined effect, according to him, was that most experienced hands and brightest minds are being drained.
“The onus falls squarely on the federal, state and local governments to create enabling environment for the practice of Medicine,” he said.
He bemoaned the perennial poor funding that had become the lot of NPMC in carrying out its mandate, the fallout of which is poor facilities, as well as poor motivation for trainers and trainees.
Lilly-Tariah continued: “Health cannot be characterised as social event. It goes beyond that the role of the college is different and in dealing with the college, the government should treat it specially and preferentially.
“We don’t have much process for generating IGR (internally-generated revenue). We have to stay within the scope of conducting examinations for our candidates and we cannot overtax them so as not to overburden the candidates,” he said.
He suggested that an expanded national insurance scheme is one way of making healthcare more robust, as it would rekindle hope to medical practice and retention of the best brains.
About 318 graduands were conferred with the college’s Fellowship award. The faculties with the highest number of graduands were Obstetrics and Gynecology 47, Pathology 43, while 36 were in Internal Medicine.
The Faculty of Psychiatry had seven graduands followed by Family Dentistry (three) and Otolaryngology (two).
In his convocation lecture titled: “Do not be afraid and do not fail to rescue,” a professor of Otolaryngology from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Basil Ezeanolue, also said the problem of brain drain was getting worse, attributing the development to some factors.
“No matter your reason, do not fail rescue yourself or the society from the challenges you or they are facing, you can make positive impact on the situation you find yourself”, he urged NPMC management.
Ezeanolue said though emigrants were lured by the attractive salaries and wages, better and safer living conditions than what obtained in their homeland, he however, advised them to be entrepreneurship-driven, saying that would take them out of the non-wealthy class of people, be it in Nigeria or beyond.
“Wherever you pitch your professional practice, harness the potential you have. The foreign currency you are paid with could serve as foreign direct investment in Nigeria. For those who opt to remain in the country, the Nigerian currency is equally good for investment in the health sector,” he said.