The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, says Federal Government is working toward improving the condition of service of Nigerian doctors to check migration of the medical personnel.
The minister disclosed this in the ministerial forum in Abuja.
He also said that the Federal Government had been working toward engaging experienced Nigerian doctors living abroad so they could offer healthcare services to Nigerians virtually.
He said “at a very senior level of those who have had post graduate training, we are doing everything we can to improve the conditions of service.
“The health reform committee set up by the president is working and looking at that; we have been talking with the Ministry of Labour on how to do that.
“We are also talking approximately engaging the ones who’ve spent a few years abroad who are professionals who are incredibly specialised who know a whole lot of high tech medicine to engage them to work with us although it’s miles absolutely with the intention to do digital consultations.
They can come right here each 3 months or six months for a few weeks and perform a little work fingers on in order that we will gain some thing from their revel in and expertise.
“This is in order that we can harvest the understanding and abilities that they evolved after running for many years in particularly advanced nations.”
Ehanire, who described the problem of migration of health workers specifically doctors and nurses as a international phenomenon and no longer atypical to Nigeria, introduced that human beings in those professions were becoming very cellular expert group.
He stated “i’ve spoken with fitness authorities within the uk and that they have instructed me that their medical doctors are also leaving for Canada, New Zealand and different nations wherein the pay is higher.
“So, the motion of medical doctors is not odd to Nigeria, Ghana has the equal experience. I spoke to the Minister of fitness of Egypt; they have the equal experience in mobility of docs or even in Europe, european medical doctors pass to where the salaries are higher.
“As far as we’re worried, it’s far the very experienced ones who leave we have issues with.”
Ehanire defined that Nigeria produces approximately 3000 doctors each yr and the wide variety which are leaving is pretty much a thousand, “so, there may be indeed a surplus of medical doctors.”
He delivered that many docs have been nonetheless on the lookout for where they might do their internship or to serve their residency, announcing that “after they go through some training, the more youthful ones ought to without difficulty be replaced fast.”
According to the minister, the Federal authorities is likewise running on civil provider guidelines to make the replacement spark off so that once a medical doctor leaves, he or she may be replaced inside per week.”
The plain gaps we see is due to the fact guidelines ought to be obeyed and this makes it tough for people who exit the public hospitals to be immediately replaced.
“So, once this is possible, it is going to be carried out, but at a completely advanced degree of those who’ve submit graduate education, we are doing the whole thing we can to enhance the condition of service”, he added.
Okay.ng reports that migration of medical doctors and different fitness personnel from Nigeria to different countries of the arena has improved astronomically, and the story is that there are better working conditions and renumeration overseas.
Following such reports, many stakeholders inside the fitness quarter along with the Nigerian scientific association (NMA) and the Nigerian association of Resident doctors (NARD) have lent their voices to the difficulty of brain drain.
They stated that unless drastic measures had been deployed through governments to stem the tide of brain drain, country wide health indices may also run out of control, leaving Nigeria at the bottom rung amongst comity of nations.
