Opinion

Addressing the Brain Drain Challenge: The Complex Path Ahead for Nigeria’s Healthcare System”

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Dr Abdullahi Dahiru

<p><&excl;-- BEGIN THEIA POST SLIDER --><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"pXW9vp8f" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Abdullahi Dahiru<&sol;p><div class&equals;"m4xh1FEg" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>President Bola Tinubu&&num;8217&semi;s cabinet is going to have the highest number of medical Doctors than and previous federal cabinet&period; Already four medical Doctors have been screened by the senate-Mohammed Pate&comma; Isiak Salako&comma; Batte Edu And Yusuf Sununu&period; Another medical Docor Mariya Mahmoud is possibly going to be screened today&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;These Doctors that wete nominated to the cabinet are highly skilled&period; All of them have done postgraduate trainings and gathered experience over the years&period; Two of them are even professors&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I watched the screening of three of the ones already screened by the senate&period; A recurrent question asked by the senators was how to reduce the brain drain haemorrhage of medical d<br &sol;>&NewLine;Doctors from Nigeria to other countries&period; The current Doctor&sol;patient ratio is about 1&colon;10&comma;000&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But I think the senators were asking this question just as a mundane thing&period; The problem seem to defy solution&period; In the last 3 years alone&comma; how many doctors have left the country to middle east&comma; Europe and America&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Salary is a major issue but not the only issue&period; People used to mention it as the main problem&period; But even in Nigeria there is discrepancy of salary between Doctors working with federal government and those working for state governments&period; So there is &&num;8216&semi;internal&&num;8217&semi; brain drain between state services and federal service&period; There is discrepancy between the salary of medical Doctors working in the university as lecturers and those working as consultants alone for the teaching hospitals and federal medical centres&period; How can we adsress that and ensure pay parity among Doctors across different services&quest;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Perhaps&comma; government need to increase the intake of medical students into the universities to produce more Doctors&period; The government has established universities of medical sciencies in the geopolitical zones&comma; but how long would it take to see result from those newly established universities&quest; Perhaps we need to increase intake in the already existing universities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>People talk of brain drain alone as if all the Doctors we have in the country are already employed&period; There is unemployment in the health care service&period; 21 years ago when we graduated&comma; people have to seek for introduction letters from influencial people to get employed as a house officer which is mandatory service before a Doctor get licensed&period; I waited for six month before starting housemanship&period; Then after finishing house job&comma; my name was ommitted in the NYSC mobilization&period; So I waited for another six month&period; Already one year was lost between starting housemanship and completion of NYSC&period; I waited for another two years after passing the primaries to start residency training because there was no slot in the neighbouring teaching hospitals&period; This can be frustrating&period;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"4PJGuQWr" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;" &NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"6550225277"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>A Doctor can finish residency training and start roaming the hospitals looking for placement because His training institution may not have a job for him&period; If he can&&num;8217&semi;t get one in the shortest possible time&comma; what happens&quest; If there are vacancies in Saudi Arabia for him&comma; won&&num;8217&semi;t he leave&quest;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Currently&comma; the resident Doctors association comprising about 16&comma;000 Doctors has embarked on strie to demand pay increase&comma; payment of training allowances and other issues of improved welfare&period; Government has threatened to apply &&num;8216&semi;no work no pay&&num;8217&semi; rule on them&period; The Doctors would start demonstration this week&period; These kind of frustrations would further excercebate the crisis&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;So if government want to tackle the issue of brain drain in health care service&comma; there should be sincerity of purpose not just talking for talking sense&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad5" id&equals;"quads-ad5" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Abdullahi Dahiru is a medical Doctor<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;-- END THEIA POST SLIDER -->&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"autorelaxed" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1004305389"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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