Nigeria has too many doctors and is not suffering from a “brain drain”, Nigeria’s minister of labour, Senator Chris Ngige says. He also said that doctors who feel they want to relocate in search of greener pastures are free to do so as the nation has enough medical personnel .Senator Ngige has been under serious attack from different groups especially the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA for saying that the country has enough medical doctors but the minister said his comment has been subjected to serial distortion and misinterpretation.
The NMA says there are only 40,000 doctors in an estimated population of 196 million.
The latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that Nigeria’s physician-to-patient ratio is four doctors per 10,000 patients and patients often wait hours to be seen. In the US the ratio is 26 doctors per 10,000 people and 28 in the UK.
Brain drain is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, but the concerns are that doctors are now leaving much earlier in their careers.Nine in every 10 doctors are considering work opportunities outside Nigeria . And it is projected to keep rising as doctors continue to face systemic challenges.
