Nigerian health ministry plans to engage diaspora doctors and nurses in bid to combat brain drain

HEALTH minister Dr Osagie Ehanire has revealed that the federal government is setting up a mechanism to engage Nigerian doctors and nurses in the diaspora and connect them with universities and hospitals across the country in a bid to combat the current brain drain.

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 2022 alone.

Unperturbed about the crisis, however, Dr Ehanire, said last year that there are actually enough medical doctors in Nigeria and the federal government is working towards replacing anyone who resigns and leaves the country. It appears that he is considering addressing the crisis as flow of doctors out of Nigeria has been incessant and developed into a deluge in the post-Covid era.

According to Dr Ehanire, experienced doctors and nurses are leaving the country because they feel they are not properly rewarded for the work they are doing. He added that the federal government is trying to address the issue by improving the conditions of service for medical personnel but pointed out that Nigeria is not the only country affected by high mobility of health workers.

Dr Ehanire said: “I was at a meeting where the minister of health of Gambia was complaining too that the doctors they have, some of them have left. I also spoke with authorities in the UK who also complained that their doctors are going to Canada and New Zealand where their pay is better.

“So mobility is global and not that we are doing something wrong but market forces working globally. The situation is the same in Turkey and Egypt, so, we are trying to measure performance and let people be happy and feel they are properly rewarded for what they have done.

“What we are also going to do is what they call the conversion of brain drain to brain gain. We are doing that with a new mechanism that is being set up now to engage Nigerian doctors and nurses in the diaspora and connect them with universities and hospitals because modern technology makes it possible for somebody to be delivering lectures in New York and we have people here listening to it, so we can have those who are ready to transfer knowledge to do so.

“Also, those who have to do surgery or see a patient can book periods during which they will come. So, they can be affiliated with a particular teaching hospital and come in with cutting-edge knowledge and skills to come here and pass this knowledge on.”