Nigerian hospitals are not finding replacements for the large number of medical doctors moving abroad, an indication the country may face a serious health crisis soon.
A doctors’ union confirmed some units have closed in some hospitals as authorities have been unable to recruit workers to fill in for those that left for conditions abroad.
“Many doctors have japa, and despite our willingness to replace them by employing new ones, they are nowhere to be found,” said Professor Isah Adagiri, chief medical director of Kogi Specialist Hospital, during a session with state lawmakers in Lokoja on Wednesday.
He used the Yoruba word japa, which means to run, flee or escape. Japa has become the buzzword many Nigerians use to describe leaving the country.
“It’s no longer news that a lot of doctors are moving out of the country in droves for greener pastures, a situation, which is negatively telling on our services as a hospital,” Adagiri said, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Moving abroad
So many Nigerians, most notably doctors and nurses, are seeking jobs abroad, leaving behind a vacuum in Nigeria. Meanwhile hospitals are losing qualified staff at an alarming rate, as droves of doctors and nurses head for America, Britain, Canada, the Gulf states and elsewhere in search of better pay and working conditions.
In the past eight years, by one count, at least 5,600 doctors have left for Britain, leaving only 24,000 registered doctors to cater for a burgeoning population of around 220 million. The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors fears that 85% of those left behind are planning to emigrate, too.
The union said that 1,417 doctors plan to leave for the UK and the U.S. by the end of 2023.
Nigeria has four physicians to 10,000 patients, compared to 26 in the United States and 28 in the United Kingdom, according to the World Health Organisation.
The doctors’ union said some hopsitals have closed some wards as there are no doctors to work there. The behavioural science and psychiatry unit at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile Ife, Osun State, was shut down for such reason.
The government has not demonstrated a clear policy for resolving the problem. Over a week ago, President Bola Tinubu appealed to health workers abroad to “sacrifice their time to come back home and serve their people.”
Kogi Problem
Prof Adagiri said the state has a standing instruction from the governor to recruit new to replace any medical doctor who leave for greener pasture abroad, but “the doctors are not forthcoming.”
“There are lots of disadvantages in the crave for greener pastures by these doctors, who do all they could to earn every Kobo being paid them,” he said.
He said with a better welfare package, the government could discourage and stop the Japa syndrome.
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