TheCable

Francis Faduyile, president of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), says it will take 25 years to reduce the shortage of doctors in the country.

Speaking on Tuesday in Lagos at an annual symposium organised by the Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN), the NMA president said the current number of doctors in the country cannot attend to the medical needs of the population.

Faduyile said a doctor attends to about 10,000 to 22,000 patients against the recommendation of the World Health Organisation, which stipulates a doctor to 600 patients.

He said the country’s higher institutions of learning produce about 3,000 doctors annually, and that it will take 25 years to cover the deficit.

“Like in the UK where many of our doctors are migrating to, the ratio of doctors to the populace is about zero point eight,” he said.

“It means that they have so many doctors, whereas Nigeria is in deficit when it comes to numbers of doctors.

“Nigeria is losing some of its most educated, talented and professional healthcare practitioners to countries such as Namibia, Senegal, Ghana, U.K, South Africa and many others.

“This is because the government is not interested in giving adequate priority to health, low funding, no appropriate employment, low remuneration, lack of equipment to intervene and save lives, insecurity, bad roads, among other problems.

“Now, it is taking a toll on the country as our people are suffering due to the shortage of workers, people are dying due to lack of effective healthcare system and Nigeria has one of the worst health indices in the world.”