Nigeria may indeed, may have hit a healthcare crisis going by statistics of medical doctors who have left the country in the last few years, and the number left to attend to its about 250 million people.
Only 55, 000 medical doctors are now left to cater to its burgeoning population of about 250 million, after about 16,000 doctors have emigrated in the last five years.
The worrisome statistics were part of the facts and figures traded yesterday at Yaba, at the Ordinary General Meeting and Scientific Conferenceof the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD).
For example, although the World Health Organisation’s recommended one doctor to 600 people, a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Dr. Yesir Kareem, said Nigeria’s doctor-to-patient ratio had fallen to about one doctor for more than 10,000 patients.
“Only about 55,000 doctors remain to serve a population of over 220 million Nigerians.
“More than 40 million Nigerians suffer from mental health disorders, yet about 85 per cent of them do not have access to mental healthcare services,” Kareem said.
“The economic consequences are equally devastating, with billions of dollars lost annually due to untreated mental health conditions,” he added.
According to him, doctors were leaving due to poor remuneration and delayed salaries, competitive salaries in destination countries, overwhelming patient loads (1:10,000+), better work-life balance and conditions, and inadequate medical equipment & facilities.
Providing additional perspective, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Omoti Ernest, although the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has registered over 130,000 doctors, only about 55,000 remain in active practice in Nigeria.
These come in the midst of a warning early in the month by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and issuance of a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to attend to healthcare crisis in the country.
Demanding the implementation of a national framework for the protection of healthcare workers, NARD president, Mohammad Suleiman, said the rising cases of assault, intimidation, harassment and violent attacks on doctors pose a serious threat to Nigeria’s already fragile healthcare system.
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