Medical students’ enrolment increase: Panacea to brain drain?
There has been a wave of immigration, popularly called ‘japa’, by medical doctors, nurses, and other health workers hence the move by federal government to double the number of medical students enrolled by universities. Will increase in enrolment check brains drain, KEHINDE OSASONA asks in this report.
It is no longer news that Nigeria loses hundreds of medical doctors annually to brain to countries like United Kingdom (UK), United States (US), Canada, Europe, South Africa and other parts of Africa.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), no fewer than 5,600 Nigerian medical doctors have migrated to the United Kingdom, UK, in the last eight years.
Globally, there’s a shortage of health manpower, which has been estimated at an 18 million shortfall.
What makes the Nigeria scenario peculiar is the fact that brain drain has become a serious challenge to Nigeria’s health sector as healthcare workers continue to leave the country in droves to other countries in search of greener pastures.
Health officials say at least 5,600 Nigerian medical doctors have migrated to the United Kingdom (UK) alone in the last eight years, a situation that made the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) cry out last year, even as the Association predicted a total collapse of the country’s health sector if urgent steps were not taken to address the brain drain in the sector.
The NMA also called for an emergency solution, fearing that with the trend of medical doctors leaving the country, there may be a need to hire doctors from foreign countries in the future.
More worries
Earlier this year, the National President of the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr. Victor Makanjuola, revealed that over 500 medical consultants have left the country within the last two years.
“This figure is as of March last year, so it is far more than that,” Makanjuola said during a National Executive Committee meeting of the Association in Enugu.
Also, in October last year, the Kaduna state Chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, raised an alarm that something urgently needed to be done to arrest the continued brain drain of medical personnel in Kaduna state.
The Association observed that no fewer than 10,000 doctors left Nigeria for greener pastures in the last seven years; a situation it said had become disturbing.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had also raised an alarm that the nation was lacking doctors and was contending with a doctor-patient ratio over five times lower than the organisation’s recommendation.
A year later, WHO again identified 55 countries, including Nigeria, as having the most pressing workforce challenges related to Universal Health Coverage.
Following the development, the UK placed Nigeria and 53 other countries on the red list of countries that should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers.
Consequent upon the ugly development, Governors of the thirty-six states under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) led by Sokoto State Governor and former Chairman of the Forum, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, also expressed fears and concerns over the prevalence of brain drain in the health sector.
Speaking during an unscheduled visit to former Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, in Abuja, Tambuwal said: “We are witnessing brain drain over the years. It is alarming, and I believe it has something to do with the welfare of medical personnel.
“I urge the federal government to do something about this urgently,” Tambuwal said.
Also overwhelmed by the threat, Nigeria’s House of Representatives, sometime in April this year, mooted a Bill to stop medical doctors from seeking greener pastures less than five years after medical school.
The action of the parliament towards curbing the incessant exodus of medical doctors from the country generated a lot of fuss and could have led to the federal government changing tactics on how to tackle the problem.
Although the proposed Bill aimed at addressing the crisis has passed the second reading stage of the law-making process, it has nevertheless continued to attract opposition from healthcare practitioners.
Sponsored by Ganiyu Johnson representing Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency 2 of Lagos State in the House of Representatives, the bill seeks to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act to prevent Nigerian-trained medical or dental practitioners from being granted full licenses until they have worked in the country for at least five years.
According to Johnson, “It was only fair for medical practitioners, who enjoyed taxpayer subsidies on their training, to give back to society.”
While opposing the Bill, Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, who represents Abia state on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said it would “tie down” doctors in Nigeria for five years before they can seek employment in a foreign country.
Similarly, Mark Gbillah, a lawmaker from Benue, opposed the Bill saying it proposed clauses that would overstep the fundamental human rights of Nigerian-trained doctors.
“A person in such a critical field as medicine, how would you give somebody a temporary license? You would need a license to be certified to practice.
“Do we try to restrict these people and infringe on their fundamental human rights or apportion more resources to the medical profession?” Gbillah asked.
…NARD kicks
Also opposing the Nill, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), in a communique issued at the end of the Association’s extended National Officers’ Committee (NOC) meeting, expressed shock and disappointment the infuriating attempts by the house to enslave Nigerian-Trained Medical Doctors under the guise of five years post-graduation before they can be issued full practicing licenses or allowed to travel abroad if they so wished.
Solution in sight?
No doubt, growing evidence of a national physician shortage would rattle any responsive government and the gap could only be bridged via boosting enrollment via employment with good salaries as well as by creating new medical schools.
Last week, the federal government announced that it has put in place strategies to double the population of medical and dental doctors from 5,000 to 10,000 from the next academic year by increasing admission into the medical and dental institutions.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, who made the disclosure at the induction ceremony of foreign-trained medical and dental graduates by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, in Abuja, expressed optimism that the exodus of licensed doctors and other health professionals to more developed countries would be discouraged by making the health care environment more attractive.
Giving assurance, the minister said part of the strategy being adopted by the government is to double the population of medical and dental doctors from 5,000 to 10,000 from the next academic year.
Explaining the government motives further, the minister added that the over 3,000 doctors produced annually in Nigeria remain grossly inadequate, hence, the need to double the rate of production of health workers.
Alausa also promised that the government would continue to advocate more funding for the health sector and increase the value chain to attract more international grants and funding.
“Equally, we shall expand these opportunities to all other health professionals like pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, community health extension workers, radiographers, and others.
“Although, this will be in phases. We shall create room to produce more and excess because globally, there’s a shortage of health manpower, which has been estimated at a shortage of 18 million people,” he stated.
