FACTS: Medical Doctors, The Rising Brain Drain?

•Our many medical doctors practicing abroad will not return because we wish it
Amidst the myriad of crises confronting Nigeria’s health sector today, including chronic shortage of manpower, the revelation that there are 3,936 medical doctors practicing in the United Kingdom is, to say the least, shocking. We agree with the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr OsahonEnabulele, that this situation is absolutely unacceptable.
Shedding further light on the crisis in the sector, Dr Enabulele said the country has 71,740 medical and dental practitioners listed on the register of the Medical and Dental Health Council of Nigeria, with about 27,000 currently in Nigeria. The implication is that the country has a doctor-population ratio of 1: 6,187, given a population base of 167, 000,000. There is certainly no way effective and efficient health care can be delivered to the vast majority of Nigerians with this kind of depressing scenario.
Again, Dr Enabulele is spot on when he avers that Nigeria has become a manufacturing plant for the production of medical doctors and dentists for the health care systems of developed countries such as the United Kingdom, USA, Australia and Canada where there is a high demand for medical practitioners from developing countries. This observation is certainly no exaggeration. It is estimated that over 15,000 Nigerian-trained medical doctors are practising abroad in the countries listed above, as well as South Africa, Botswana and Ghana, among others. The country is thus akin to the physician who is busy trying to cure others when he has refused to heal himself.
At least 40,000 Nigerian medical doctors are reportedly practising in the United States today. At a recent meeting with officials of the Federal Ministry of Health, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, reiterated the seriousness of the problem and sought collaboration between the ministry and her committee to address it. Citing the examples of China and India, she called for measures to encourage Nigerian medical professionals abroad to come back home to contribute their quota to the country’s health care delivery.
Doctors who have migrated to other climes are not motivated by lack of patriotism or selfish pecuniary considerations. The massive brain drain of Nigerians abroad actually started in the 1980s, following the acute economic crisis caused largely by the profligacy of parasitic and corrupt ruling elite. Faced with poor remuneration, lack of a satisfactory working environment and the absence of the necessary equipment to function optimally, doctors and other professionals, including nurses, left the country in droves to countries where they could get adequate remuneration and fulfilment.
The loser was the country’s health care system. It is instructive, for instance, that some states, particularly in the North have had cause to engage the services of Pakistani doctors! Thus, while we are employing foreign medical personnel, thousands of highly qualified Nigerian doctors are contributing to the development of the health care system of other countries. It simply makes no sense.
The General Ibrahim Babangida regime in the 1980s set up a committee to address and find solutions to the brain drain challenge. It is not surprising that nothing came of it. The problem needs no committee. This country is undoubtedly sufficiently endowed to have well-equipped public health facilities manned by well-remunerated and motivated staff. That is the best way to woo Nigerian medical doctors, nurses and other professionals back to the country.
Equally critical is the need to decisively address the security challenges confronting the country. The daily news of kidnapping, armed robbery, assassinations, wanton murder, communal clashes and religious conflicts emanating from Nigeria can only discourage any professional who has an alternative from returning.
Source: The Nation