Nine in 10 young Nigerian medical and dental consultants plans to leave the country soon

NINE out of 10 Nigerian medical and dental consultants with less than five years experience plan to leave the country for greener pastures any time soon according to research just published by the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN).

Amid a severe crisis in the Nigerian health sector, more and more doctors are leaving for abroad, with the UK among their top destinations. For instance, Britain's General Medical Council (GMC) which licenses and maintains the official register of medical practitioners in the UK, licensed at least 266 Nigerian doctors during the course of June and July this year alone.

Nigeria, with a population of over 200m citizens, currently has one doctor to the over 5,000 citizens, which is way below the current World Health Organisation recommendation of one doctor to 600 citizens. Apart from the UK, other popular destinations for Nigeria-trained doctors include the US, Canada, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

MDCAN said a survey carried out in March this year by its Medical Education Committee,  found that over 500 medical and dental consultants had left Nigeria for developed countries over the preceding two years. Its president, Dr Victor Makanjuola, unveiled these scary statistics in Abuja this week.

Dr Makanjuola said: “Disturbed by the impact of this ugly trend on our country’s health sector growth and development, MDCAN has conducted a survey among its chapters in March 2022 and found that over 500 medical and dental consultants had left Nigeria for more developed countries over the preceding two years. A further exploration of data by the association’s Medical Education Committee showed that nine out of every 10 medical and dental consultants with less than five years experience on the job had plans to leave the country.

“Furthermore, the Nigerian Medical Association recently reported that only 24,000 doctors are currently registered to practise in Nigeria, giving a ratio of one doctor to over 8,000 Nigerians, against the World Health Organisation’s recommended ratio of one doctor to every 600 people. It is important to note that the average medical and dental consultant is not only a clinician but also doubles as a teacher for medical students and doctors in specialist (residency) training.

"It, therefore, goes without saying that the loss of this category of highly skilled workforce to other countries will not only have an immediate negative impact on clinical service delivery but will leave a long-term devastating impact on the training of future doctors in Nigeria. Anecdotal projections indicate that the 3,000 fresh medical and dental doctors, on average, produced by our local medical schools in Nigeria and another 1,000 produced by foreign medical schools, fall far short of the number of such healthcare personnel required to meet the country’s yearly medical manpower supply needs, estimated to fall between 10,000 and 12,000."