. Over 7500 Nigerian Doctors practice in UK

• Over 5000 Nigerian Doctors have moved to the US

• President Buhari has spent more than 200 days overseas in search of medical treatment

Early this year, DESERT HERALD Newspaper reported on how Nigerian doctors are migrating to Britain in the face of poor working conditions, government’s neglect of the health sector and the penchant of Nigerian leaders to seek for medical solace outside of the shores of the country are some of the factors responsible for the movement of medical personnel out of the country.

What this shows is that the health sector in Nigeria is under grave danger and Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gun powder as far as the health sector is concerned.

In his speech at Chatham House in London in 2014, General Muhammadu Buhari, who was vying for the office of the Presidency then, decried the parlous state of health sector in the country. While promising to stop all government officials from embarking on medical vacation in foreign land, the All Progressives Congress flag bearer also promised to fund the health sector and revamp its decaying facilities.

However, when General Muhammadu Buhari assumed office as the President, he discarded his earlier pledge to stop government officials from traveling overseas to seek medical treatment. In fact, the President became the number one government official that sought treatment overseas, as records have it that the President has spent over 200 days in London while being treated for unknown ailments.

A timeline of Buhari’s medical vacation overseas showed that the President have traveled seven times in six years. 

* February 5-10, 2016: Buhari took a six-day vacation in the United Kingdom.

* June 6-19, 2016: Buhari went on a 10-day medical trip to England for an ear infection surgery. He extended his trip by three days to rest.

* January 19, 2017: Buhari went to London again on a medical vacation.

* February 5, 2017: Buhari wrote to the National Assembly, seeking extension of his London medical leave.

* May 7, 2017: Buhari embarked on a trip to London for another medical vacation. He returned after 104 days.

* May 8, 2018: Buhari went to London for a four-day “medical review.”

* March 30, 2021: President Muhammadu Buhari flew to London for a medical checkup on 30th March, 2021 for two weeks.

During the periods of President Buhari’s medical odyssey in London, records showed that more Nigerian doctors have moved from the country to foreign lands in search of greener pastures.

Between 2015 and July 2021, a total of 4,528 Nigeria-trained medical doctors have moved to the United Kingdom to practice.

The Senior Medical Officer of the British General Medical Council, Miranda Newey, disclosed this in an email exchange with The PUNCH.

According to Newey, the increase in the number of doctors migrating from Nigeria has made the council to open a bigger clinical examination centre. 

In the United States, over 5000 Nigerian doctors are practicing their profession there according to records from Nigeria Medical Association. Other medical records have shown that many more doctors in the country are in various stages of preparation to leave the country.

Inversely, as the Nigerian doctors continue to flock to the UK, US, Canada and Saudi Arabia, statistics from the World Health Organisation showed that Nigeria currently has a shortage of medical doctors with a physician-to-patient ratio of four doctors to 10,000 patients. In the US, the ratio is 26 doctors per 10,000 people and 28 in the UK.

 In 2020, The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, reported in 2020 that out of 75,000 doctors officially registered in Nigeria, over 33,000 had left the country leaving just above 50 per cent of that number to handle  the health facilities in the country.

Another survey by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) in 2021 showed more than 40,000 have fled the country in search of greener pastures, leaving only 35,000 to cater for the health needs of the citizenry.

In other words, there are 36.3 medical doctors per 100,000 Nigerians. Many factors are responsible for the frightening state of affairs, even as the penchant of the President to embark on foreign medical trips is also replicated by many governors, senators and other government officials.

COUNTING THE COST 

Consequently, the medical vacation by government officials has also helped to increase the neglect suffered by the health sector and increased capital flight overseas.

For instance, in 2016 Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) report posited that Nigeria lost over $1.0 billion to medical tourism annually – approximating nearly 20 per cent of the entire public health expenditure for healthcare in the previous year. In 2020, health experts said that $2.0 billon was lost as the result of foreign medical trips by Nigerians.

According to Tokunbo Otitoju, medical personnel, due to government neglect, the health sector has so much degraded that Nigerians travel to Egypt and Ghana for medical treatment. These countries do not have neither first class medical facilities nor good doctors as Nigeria. 

WHY ARE DOCTORS FLEEING NIGERIA?

A simple search on medical facilities in Nigeria reveals that the working environment is not encouraging, as doctors have to make do with outdated or worn out tools especially in government owned institutions or hospitals and clinics.

An investigation carried out on Aso Rock Clinic revealed that despite the huge amount of capital expended, Aso Rock Clinic lacks proper and functional x-ray machines. Power supply and alternative power supply was virtually non-existent.

According Dr. Adakole Odeh, “if Aso Rock Clinic is devoid of the necessary equipment to enable doctors to perform their duties, then what do you make of other health facilities in the country?”

Dr. Odeh continues, “It boils down to government’s neglect and corruption on the part of government officials for huge amount of money to be budgeted for the health sector, yet no commensurate facilities to show.

Another fundamental problem bedeviling the healthcare sector in Nigeria is the case of insecurity especially in the Northern parts of the country.

Doctors and nurses are now targets of bandits and kidnappers who abduct them so that they can treat their partners in crime.

In recent times, medical personnel were kidnapped in Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara States.

Again, the case of general insecurity in Nigeria has forced thousands of Nigerians to relocate to other countries. Among those leaving are doctors.

The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) is currently on strike over the government’s failure to pay outstanding salary arrears and residency training funds for two years. Despite all the promises by the Buhari administration to rectify the anomalies in the health sector, it has failed woefully to fulfill its part of the deal.

Just recently, the Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, said striking healthy workers would no longer get paid.

With all these, it is hard to see why doctors would not feel free to leave for better working conditions and pay in other climes. 

Once again, Dr. Tokunbo identifies the fact that government officials are always traveling overseas for medical treatment as one of the many reasons why the doctors are neglected and threatened.

As long as the President and his cabinet continue to pay lip service to the health sector, there would be more migration of medical personnel overseas.