By Abiola Olawale
The “Japa Syndrome” – a phenomenon where Nigerians migrate abroad in search of opportunities, has continued to mount huge concerns on the Federal Government as the country keeps losing its best hands to other foreign countries.
This is as the Federal Government on Sunday lamented that only 55,000 licensed doctors are in the country to attend to the growing population of patients.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate, who spoke during an interview session with the members of the press said in the last five years, the country lost about 15,000 to 16,000 doctors to the Japa syndrome while about 17,000 had been transferred.
The New Diplomat reports that in recent times, Nigeria has witnessed an uptick in the number of skilled workers migrating to other countries. Many of these migrants graduated from Nigerian universities, which are highly subsidised by the government. Those who seek greener abroad take with them years of training and skills acquired locally.
Following the trend, there have been concerns that human capital export has created a manpower gap in different sectors of the Nigerian economy. And one of the most affected sectors has been health, where doctors and nurses have been migrating in droves in recent years.
Retirating the concerns, Pate said the brain drain syndrome has robbed the health sector of its best hands, adding that out of 200 million people, Nigeria has only 300,000 health professionals in Nigeria of which only 55,000 of them are doctors.
He also disclosed that available records say Nigeria has between 85,000 to 90,000 registered Nigerian doctors, but only 55,000 are practicing in the country.
However, he affirmed that the government is doing its best to expand the training scheme and motivate others who chose to stay back and serve their fatherland.
In his words, “There are about 300,000 health professionals working in Nigeria today in all cadres. I am talking about doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and others. We did an assessment and discovered we have 85,000 to 90,000 registered Nigerian doctors. Not all of them are in the country. Some are in the Diaspora, especially in the US and UK. But there are 55,000 licensed doctors in the country.
“The issue overall, in terms of health professionals, is that they are not enough. They are insufficient in terms of the skills mix. Can you believe most of the high skilled professional doctors are in Lagos, Abuja and a few urban centres? There is a huge distribution issue.
“The population of doctors overall is about 7,600 doctors in Lagos and 4,700 or thereabout in Abuja. The doctor to population ratio in Abuja is 14.7 per 10,000 population. These are numbers that you can verify. In Lagos, it is about 4.6, even though the average is 2.2 by 10,000.
“There are huge distributional issues and they are, of course, the opportunities even for some of those who have been trained to get into the market. So you have to look at it from a perspective that is holistic. Not only doctors but other cadres that are important in the delivery of health care. For doctors, we have been losing many that have been trained.
“Now to the Japa you talked about, it is not only limited to Nigeria. It is a global phenomenon. Other countries don’t have enough. They are asking to take more. It is not only in Nigeria. It is happening in India, Philippines and other parts of Africa. In the last five years, we have lost about 15,000 to 16,000 and about 17,000 have been transferred. We’re barely managing. That’s why expanding their training will become logical. The same thing with nurses and midwives; they are also leaving. That’s why expanding the training is important to ensure those still around are well trained.
“But there are also thousands more, which is what I was trying to hint at, who are here. And despite the opportunity to travel abroad, we did not leave and we don’t appreciate them. I’ll give you an example. The head of the ICU at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, a very brilliant gentleman. I met him in December and he said, ‘Four of my colleagues have left’ and I asked why he has not left. He said ‘Look, this is my country. I want to serve because health is a sector where there’s inherent motivation in those who select to go in there.’ People don’t just go in there because they want to have a job. They go because they’re intrinsically motivated and we have to recognise and tap into that.
“We are beginning to take steps to expand the training and work environment, taking some steps to encourage salaries and incomes commission to do certain things that will encourage them to feel at home. But even the issue of working hours that has come about recently, particularly for the junior doctors, is being addressed.”
“We are beginning to take steps to expand the training and work environment, taking some steps to encourage salaries and incomes commission to do certain things that will encourage them to feel at home. But even the issue of working hours that has come about recently, particularly for the junior doctors, is being addressed. This is because when some of their colleagues leave and they remain at home, the burden has not reduced. And so they work extremely hard. We’ve listened to that. We are looking at how we can alleviate that and with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, we are looking at how within the code of ethics and the guidelines for the physician to provide some safeguards to ensure they are treated as valuable assets so they are not burnt out,” he added.
