2,701 doctors trained in Nigeria have left the country to other
countries to work in the last four years, Minister of Health, Professor
Onyebuchi C.O. Chukwu, has said.
Nigeria currently posts a poor doctor-patient ratio of 1:3500 against
the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard of 1:600. Currently, all the medical
schools graduate between 3,500 and 4,000 new doctors annually.
The minister disclosed this in Lagos yesterday while delivering a
lecture titled “Medical Education in Nigeria; The Quest for World Standards and
Local relevance,” held at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). He said
only 5 percent of applicants gained admission to read medicine.
He said the demand for Nigerian doctors abroad shows the quality of
learning in Nigeria is acceptable globally.
Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) president, Dr Osahun Enabulele told
Daily Trust on phone the exodus is due to the deplorable working conditions in
the health sector.
Enabulele said the working conditions are getting worse, thereby making
other countries more attractive to Nigerian doctors.
He said most of these doctors are presently working in the US, Britian,
South África, Trinidad and Tobego and other neigbouring African countries that
treat their medical personnel better.
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