Sodiq Ojuroungbe
The Nigerian Medical Association, Ogun State branch, has raised the alarm over the mental and physical health of doctors working across the state, lamenting that many of them are depressed, exhausted, and overworked due to acute manpower shortage.
The state Chairman of the association, Dr. Azim Ashimi, said every hospital in the state was under-resourced, which he said had forced the doctors to work long hours without much assistance.
Ashimi in a statement made available to PUNCH Healthwise to usher in 2024, urged the state and federal governments to address the massive brain drain that is gradually crippling the health sector by employing more doctors and to also approving the replacement of doctors and other healthcare workers who exit the state health facilities in search of greener pastures abroad.
Attributing the shortage of manpower to the exodus of healthcare workers abroad, the Ogun NMA chair accused the government at all levels in the country of trivializing the problem “because there is no significant effort being made to retain this critical workforce.”
While commending the government for building, renovating, and upgrading health facilities over the years, he stressed the importance of having healthcare professionals who would work in them.
“We, however, want everyone to know that doctors in Ogun state are tired and overworked, and sometimes depressed.
“We will however continue to put in our best to the limits of our human capacities as we implore the Ogun State and Federal government to do the needful by employing the appropriate number of doctors to man the various healthcare facilities that the government has over the years been building, renovating or upgrading. These buildings we appreciate but they don’t treat people, healthcare professionals do.
“We look forward to a peaceful and prosperous year as we continue very hard to subdue the acrimony of our members concerning their working conditions and overworking due to the shortage of doctors.
“We look forward to Ogun State and Federal government (Federal Medical Center Abeokuta) addressing the shortages by employing the adequate number of doctors to man the health facilities around the state in the shortest possible time to foster the cordial relationship between our association and government and to prevent avoidable industrial disharmony,” he noted.
Ashimi, however, lamented that the unabating exodus of healthcare workers abroad has given rise to worsening healthcare indices as well as wanton loss of lives.
He stressed that factors that trigger the exodus of healthcare providers like inflation and insecurity continue to surge daily rather than being tackled by the government at all levels.
Available statistics show that almost all the government health institutions are battling health worker shortages as they cannot cope with the high number of patients that throng the government hospitals.
Findings by PUNCH Healthwise indicated that approximately 1,197 Nigerian-trained doctors moved to the United Kingdom since May 29, 2023, to date.
According to the register of the General Medical Council of the UK, Nigeria is set to overtake Pakistan and become the country with the second-highest number of foreign-trained doctors in the UK. Currently, India remains the country with the highest number of foreign-trained doctors in the UK.
Though about 1,197 Nigerian-trained doctors were licensed between May 29, 2023, and December 1, 2023, the total number of Nigerian doctors licensed to practice in the UK is now 12,198.
Speaking further, Ashimi said the country’s health sector may lose more than 50 percent of her skilled healthcare workforce by the end of 2025.
He added, “We are heading for the rocks in the health sector as the projections are not looking anything good. It is likely that by the end of 2025, Nigeria may lose more than 50 percent of her skilled healthcare workforce and it will be foolhardy to think that we will have the younger and less skilled professionals to hold forth because they also constitute a major percentage of those not willing to stay.
“Government needs to pay critical attention to the health sector before it collapses completely.
“The healthcare burden in Nigeria has been taken another notch higher with the unwavering activities of illicit drug merchants as well as producers of toxic wines, alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, and food products. This is likely to be an explanation for the increase we have been witnessing in kidney, liver, and heart diseases as well as mental illnesses.
“Government as well as the people need to pay serious attention to this menace.
“While we appeal to the masses to see something, say something, we appeal to regulators and law enforcement agencies to be professional in their duties to stamp out these criminal business people as any of us or our loved ones could inadvertently become victims.
“The economy is biting hard and we implore Nigerians to carefully prioritize our spending of the scarce resources available to us. Not doing so breeds undue pressure on individuals and eventually compounds the mental and physical health of the family.”
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