In an effort to halt the flow of medical professionals to the UK, the US and other developed countries, a proposed measure that would mandate five years of forced service for Nigerian medical graduates, has come under fire as being “obnoxious.”
The law reached its second reading in the lower chamber of the Nigerian parliament last month, and may be subject to an open discussion within the next few days.
The doctors’ union and civil society organizations, meanwhile, have vehemently rejected the initiative. Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors President, Dr. Innocent Orji, described the legislation as “obnoxious and outlandish.” He disclosed that, the organization will oppose it. The bill must be dropped right away because, it is a waste of taxpayer’s money.
The government, however, has moved forward in an effort to tackle serious issue of shortages among Nigeria’s medical professionals and establish a deadline for the return on investment of the nation’s educational system.
In an open letter to physicians and medical trainees, Ganiyu Johnson, a politician and the bill’s leading supporter, said, “the government has invested so much money in training these medical doctors.” “If the government subsidized your tuition, the least we expect is that, you can give back to society within the period of five years.”
However, strikes within the nation’s health sector have increased in frequency and duration over the previous few years. Despite government commitment to evaluate salary every five years, take-home pay for doctors has stayed constant for more than ten years.
Also rising, has been job uncertainty. “These are the factors why the doctors are leaving,” Chidiebere Echieh, a specialist cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Calabar, said. “I don’t think the administration understands this yet,” he averred.
Echieh claimed that, his professional life echoed his worries. Despite earning additional qualification to his training, his income has stayed unchanged. He earns an average of roughly £800 per month as a senior surgeon, which is significantly less than most medical graduates in advance countries, despite his expertise and talents.
Lack of Medical Logistics
During his postgraduate study in the United States, he observed the differences in health technology between his Nigeria, and the US, Echieh disclosed. That has become another contributing factor why Nigerian doctors travel abroad.
“There are so many healthcare technologies that are not available in Nigeria. For people, medical personnel to have first-hand experience using these technologies, they have to travel outside Nigeria,” Echieh said. “No matter how long you practice in Nigeria, without hands-on experience of these technologies, your mastery will be limited,” he explained further.
Gaps in technology have contributed to death tolls in public health. Doctors have noted an increase in trauma and depression, within their profession, which they attribute to the excessive number of preventable fatalities in Nigerian hospitals.
“It is painful for a doctor who knows what to do to see their patient dying because the right technology is not there to save those lives,” Orji said. He added that, “It causes depression to watch people die of easily treatable health conditions due to a lack of basic technology and equipment.”
Both the administration and the medical community now concur that a crisis has occurred. Despite having 218 million people, Nigeria only has 24,000 licensed doctors.
Nigeria has been placed on the World Health Organizations red list, just to discourage developed countries, from hunting Nigeria’s already deplorable medical Workforce. The UK, along with Canada, the US, and Saudi Arabia, are the countries, that hires the most Nigerian doctors.
Nearly 5,000 doctors went to the UK between 2015 and 2021, according to the Development Research and Projects Centre, a non-profit organization based in Nigeria.
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