Buhari concedes that Nigeria has a brain drain problem with the loss of medical doctors

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has conceded that Nigeria has a serious problem on its hands relating to the loss of medical professionals as the high rate at which doctors and nurses were emigrating was alarming.

In the UK, the British General Medical Council (GMC), licenses and maintains the official register of medical practitioners and recent statistics show that at least three Nigerian doctors were licensed per day in April and May 2021. This is despite a UK government policy introduced in February to discourage the aggressive recruitment of doctors from 47 developing countries facing shortages at home, including Nigeria.

Between July and December 2020, the average number of Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK stood at about 1.3 per day but by May 2021, this figure had risen to 3.3 per day. Between June 7 and June 8, 2020, a space of 24 hours, about seven Nigerian trained doctors were licensed by the UK.

There is also a high ration of Nigerian doctors migrating to the US, Canada and Saudi Arabia as a result of poor working conditions back home. Up until now, the Nigerian government has refused to acknowledge that it has a problem on its hands but yesterday, President Buhari conceded that it constituted a brain drain and was detrimental to the health needs of Nigeria's citizens.

Speaking at the virtual groundbreaking ceremony of the African Medical Centre of Excellence, a hospital project in Abuja that is expected to significantly transform the healthcare sector in the West African sub-region, President Buhari admitted that all is not well. He added that a stronger partnership with the private sector will help improve health facilities and access in the country, as a nation needs a healthy population to prosper.

President Buhari said: “This problem of inadequate health facilities is further exacerbated by the significant brain drain experienced by the continent. The flight of doctors and nurses to other continents has resulted in a significant gap between the required treatments for non-communicable diseases and the available treatments and care."

A major initiative, the African Medical Centre of Excellence is being funded by several international bodies. They include the African Export–Import Bank, the Federal Government of Nigeria, Kings College Hospital London, University of Wisconsin Teaching Hospital USA and Christies Hospital, Manchester.

According to President Buhari, in addition to providing comprehensive care across the three critical care areas, the facility will offer educational services to develop talent and establish itself as a world-class research centre. A 500-bed specialist facility, it will provide services in the areas of oncology, cardiology and haematology.