From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has appealed to Nigerian medical doctors and other health professionals to reconsider highly tempting offers abroad, to remain in the country and render professional services to fellow Nigerians.
The Association said the decision to ignore mouth watering offers abroad by the doctors is a mark of patriotism to contribute to national development.
NMA National President Dr Innocent Ujah, at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, said the appeal was made at National Executive Council (NEC) held in Sokoto, last week.
Dr Ujah raised the alarm that Nigeria’s health sector might soon face serious human resources problem with the increasing interest of Nigerian doctors and other health professionals on foreign job offers.
He said the situation is a ticking timed bomb that need to be detonated as quickly as possible using favorable health policies, renumeration and other mouth-watering offers to stop the mass movement of the doctors.
He also called on governments to urgently take strategic steps to address the threats to human resource in the health sector, while appealing to doctors and other healthcare professionals to reconsider the highly tempting offers to stay back home as a mark of patriotism to contribute to national development.
He said: “The consequences of this mass exodus of doctors include acute shortages of highly trained doctors and health professionals in the various cadres in health, increasing waiting time, poor health outcomes, and unabating medical tourism resulting in huge loses in foreign exchange.”
Meanwhile, the NMA NEC at the meeting registered its discontent with the declining budgetary allocation to the health sector, demanding that government up the budgetary provisions to health to ensure an improved healthcare services.
He said: “Sadly, Nigeria has been unable to achieve the “Abuja Declaration of 2001” of allocating at least 15 per cent of its national budget to health, with the 2022 budgetary allocation to health, still remain at 4.3 per cent of the Appropriation.
“Similarly, the non-prioritization of health matters in terms of fund allocation, and the failure of innovation and creativity in identifying alternative financing options for healthcare in Nigeria is a big challenge to the health sector.”
The Association, thus, called on the governments to show more commitment towards attaining self-assigned obligation through a stepwise increase in the appropriation for healthcare up to at least the 15 per cent mark of the 2001 Abuja Declaration.
It also advocated effective utilization of funds earmarked for COVID-19 response, as well as the establishment of a health bank of Nigeria by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as dedicated intervention to provide credit facilities to particularly the private health sector which is suffocating under the excruciating high interest rates by commercial Banks.
“Additionally, expansion of access to the nation’s health system for all Nigerians through increased funding for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) must be expedited for quality health improvement,” it said.