By Doris Obinna
Medical doctors have said that there are drastic reductions in terms of brain drain in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The doctors, under the auspices of the Medical Guild, Lagos branch, announced this at a press conference in Lagos to herald the 2021 annual general meeting of the guild, themed “Tackling the challenge of human resource for health in Lagos State,” holding December 5 to 10 2021.
Speaking at the conference, chairman of the guild, Dr. Oluwajimi Sodipo, said, the theme was geared towards having a critical analysis of the manpower needs in health and ways of retaining them, especially with the push and pull factors driving brain drain to other parts of the world.
According to him, the pull factors are increasing, especially with the burden of COVID-19 on health systems in Europe, particularly the new Omicron variant.
The sub-themes, “Professionalism and rivalry in the health sector,” Sodipo said, would look into the ways to harness and build on multidisciplinary teamwork for optimised patient management.
“The second sub-theme, ‘Health screening for the health care professional,’ captures an urgent issue affecting doctors and other health care professionals, especially as we had a number of deaths in the last two years, with the challenge of COVID-19 exacerbating the situation.”
He said: “The Medical Guild AGM will involve a health screening for civil servants working at the Ministry of Establishment and forms part of our corporate social responsibility to the state; we hope to expand to other civil servants in the upcoming year. Other events include the AGM/election and a dinner award night.
“We wish to use this opportunity to reiterate our support and the collaborative approach of the association for the THEMES agenda of Mr. Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The guild is excited by and appreciates the ongoing employment exercise taking place at various levels of health care in Lagos State, in addition to the infrastructural programmes.
“It’s our firm belief that such moves, alongside welfare packages such as subsidized housing schemes, education, among others, will secure the best health workforce for Lagos State and Lagosians.”
While advising members of the public to use measures against COVID-19, especially taking vaccination, and using other protective measures like hand washing, use of face masks and safe gathering “as we approach the festive season, we must not let down our guard, we must ensure doing all we can to avoid a fourth wave of COVID-19,” the guild said.