Brain Drain: ‘Over 38,000 Nigerian Doctors In Diaspora’

The Nigerian environment appears to unfriendly for those in the medical profession as more and more doctors have continued to flee the country to foreign lands

This was according to the Vice Chancelor of Eko University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Lagos, Prof. Muheez Durosinmi.

Speaking at the inauguration of the governing council of the institution, Durosinmi said only 35,000 out of the 73,000 registered Nigerian doctors were practicing in the country, with the rest seeking greener pasture abroad.

He said Nigeria is yet to attain the recommendation of the World Health Organisation of one doctor per 600 hundred patients.

Durosinmi, a former chairman of Faculty of Pathology, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, said Nigeria currently operates on one doctor to 6,000 patients, noting that it will take up to 100 years for the country to meet up with the WHO requirement.

According to him, Nigerian doctors are well trained and among the best in the world, but remain unemployed as both federal and state governments were not prepared to employ them.

He said: “Nigerian doctors are well trained; when our doctors go abroad, they are recognised. The downturn of the economy has made government not to employ the required number of doctors; we have a lot of medical graduates that are still looking for job.

“On the list of the medical and dentist council, we have a total of 73,000 members, only 35,000 are practising in the country; the rest are in diaspora. The current system cannot absorb them and we have so many government hospitals that can’t be proud of adequate number of doctors.”

Also speaking, chairman of governing council, Prof. Akanni Hussein, said the major challenge facing the Nigerian health sector was structural defect, adding that Nigerian doctors do very well outside the shores of the country.

He said both federal and state governments should discontinue its interference in the management of university, calling for academic freedom for higher institutions across the nation.