By Zika Bobby
The brain drain among doctors in Nigeria has become a source of worry to many due to its adverse effects on the nation’s health sector.
Brain drain is defined by the Webster Dictionary as the “departure of educated or professional people from one country, economic sector, or field for another, usually for better pay or better living conditions.”
In 2019, it was disclosed that no fewer than 35,000 doctors had left Nigeria for the United Kingdom, United State of America, European, and Asian countries for medical practice in the last 20 years.
Dr. Imafidon Osama Agbonile, a medical practitioner, who made this assertion, said, consequent upon that, Nigeria had less than one doctor to 5,000 population.
In contrast, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that doctor-population ratio should be one to 600 people.
According to Agbonile, brain drain is on the increase in Nigeria and over 40 to 60 per cent of medical graduates from Nigeria now practise abroad.
“From the various research carried out, it is estimated that over 35,000 doctors have migrated from Nigeria in the last 20 years. The rate of migration has tripled since 2015,” he said.
According to Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, president of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), said Nigeria had lost not fewer than 10,000 resident doctors to other countries in the last three years.
Okhuaihesuyi said the Nigerian health sector was suffering badly because of the manpower loss, which was taking not only doctors but also nurses and other professionals to foreign countries on a continuous basis.
He said Nigeria had lost some of its best brains in the medical sector to countries where better welfare for the worker and sophisticated medical infrastructure exist. This has enabled them provide services of the best standards humanly possible.
The NARD president pointed out that it was very difficult for doctors to effectively deliver health services to the best of their ability without the assurance that their basic needs would be provided. He said some of the unmet needs of Nigerian doctors include housing, payment of the consolidated medical salary scale and hazard allowance.
According to him, obsevers might call it brain drain but what is going on is actually ‘brain storm’ because Nigeria is losing health workers every day.
“See what is happening now that in one day 105 doctors resigned in Ondo State. That is also the case in University College Hospital, LUTH, LASUTH and every hospital in the country.
“These people are not resigning to go home and sleep; they are resigning because they have concluded requirements to go to UAE, USA, UK and other countries to practice,” he said.
These challenges were highlighted at the recent ordinary general meeting of NARD held in Awka, the Anambra State capital, where it was noted that teaching hospitals were grossly understaffed as a result of the ‘deadly’ brain drain killing the nation’s healthcare system.
Others demands were full migration from the GIFMIS payment platform to the IPPIS platform to address non-payment to NARD members, and non-payment of the national minimum wage consequential adjustment and all salary shortfalls from 2014 to date.
Irregularities following the payment of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) 2020, 2021 as well as issues around hazard allowance were also in contention.
“Look at other workers with less hazard getting paid but the healthcare workers who are faced with all sorts of hazards, ranging from communicable diseases such as Lassa fever, COVID, HIV, hepatitis, to mention but a few, are paid a meagre N5,000 as hazard allowance. This in its entirety is wickedness and evil,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a rare move, resident doctors have taken a bold step to rescue the ailing health sector by addressing housing challenges among members.
The NARD Housing Scheme, which aims to build more than 200 flats for members across the 36 states in Nigeria and FCT, is at the moment one of the biggest and most effective workers’ housing projects in the country. The NARD Estate project is funded through the mortgage system, with contributions of members to the National Housing Fund, and executed by Daniel-Bob Properties Limited, a foremost estate development company in Nigeria.
This project, according to the doctors, has the potential of not only keeping trained hands within the country, it also can make those who have left the country for ‘greener pastures’ to begin to find their way back home.
Okhuaihesuyi said the NARD housing project was an act of patriotism to help government check the challenges, because some of them wished to still stay in the country and work. He said the major attractions abroad were facilities doctors enjoy in those countries, including mortgage, insurance, allowances and comfort.
The NARD president, who led members of the association on a tour of the Isiagu Layout site of the estate in Awka, said the progress of work was commendable.
He said, “We hope to build at least 200 units of homes for our members in each of the 36 states in Nigeria and Abuja. This will help stop the outward flow of professionals in the health sector.
“Every contributor to the NHF qualifies for a housing loan of N15 million. This is what we are assessing through Federal Mortgage Bank, in partnership with Daniel-Bob, our developer, and it is at a single digit interest rate.
“We are also targeting the Nigerian health community in diaspora, they too are enjoined to key into this laudable initiative,” he said.
Okhuaihesuyi said NARD needed the assistance of state governors in acquisition of secure land at cheaper rates and has made efforts through the Nigerian Governors’ Forum but is yet to get a positive response from the governors.
He said: “The project could be cheaper if governors help us with cheap land, this will reduce the cost of the buildings and shorten the repayment period.
“The developer has been wonderful. The progress is impressive. We hope he continues at this rate.”
A visit to the site in Awka showed that about 36 blocks of flats were already under construction, from foundation to lintel. What looked like a pipe dream has become reality.
Chief Daniel Orji, managing director of Daniel-Bob Limited, the development partners, said his firm was worried by the huge housing deficit in the country and was willing to help close the gap. Orji said the high cost of building materials in Nigeria has made it almost impossible for Nigerian workers to own modest homes.
He called on the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria to create a Housing Development Fund which would be accessible to players in the housing sector at one-digit interest rate, as has been provided for the agric sector.
Orji said the funds should be domiciled in about five commercial banks for easy access as the current situation where only the FMBN was disbursing mortgage finances was becoming rigorous and time consuming.
Orji, however, pointed out that the cost of materials was a big challenge to housing development and called on the Federal Government to subsidise cement and iron rods.
He said the demand for housing was so large that the country needed to expand the supply side by allowing more firms to produce and import the basic materials and allow competition in the sector.
According to him, “The good thing about mortgage loans is that they are near risk-free because the property is there for all to see.
“Daniel-Bob Limited as a foremost estate development company in Nigeria is partnering with the FMBN to facilitate property ownership for public sector workers, members market associations and groups.”