Insecurity, poor welfare, pushing doctors out of Nigeria – MDCAN

The Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), on Wednesday, disclosed that the current insecurity challenges ravaging almost all parts of the country and poor welfare in the health sector are pushing its members to leave Nigeria to other countries.

The group said doctors were migrating to countries where their lives were guaranteed and their welfare was giving paramount consideration, saying the situation was worrisome and must be tackled immediately.

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It said the data at hand now showed that the number of those leaving Nigeria for other countries was on the increase by the day.

At a press briefing held in Jos, Professor Ken Ozoilo, the National President of the group said “NEC noted with alarm, the very high rate of emigration of Nigeria’s highly trained medical and health manpower to greener pastures. The failure of the government to recognize the nexus between this massive brain drain and the COVID-19 recovery efforts in destination countries is most worrisome.

“NEC notes that while these countries have put in place measures to recover their health systems, including boosting personnel by luring our members with lucrative conditions of service, the Nigerian government has not put in place any serious measure to retain this highly skilled manpower. The link between the dilapidated state of the economy, poor remuneration, inadequate health infrastructure/equipment, and highly volatile security situation are also factors forcing doctors to emigrate.

“The current security challenges in Nigeria threatens the very fabric of our existence and should be a cause for concern for all well-meaning Nigerians. Its ravages afflict all sectors of Nigerian life including the economy, food security, commerce, education, health, etc. The current brain drain that has increased exponentially in recent times is also partly fuelled by the need to flee this insecurity, the group added.

The group, therefore, said the government must be more proactive in its approach to confronting security challenges, adding that the community policing initiative was laudable, but more should to be done to decentralize security and to further empower communities to take more responsibility for their protection.

MDCAN further called on the government to as a matter of urgency to ensure the clearance of arrears owed for the outsourced services in Federal Tertiary Health Institutions especially on security.

“The operatives of some of these companies, who are paid very meager salaries, have been owed for months or years. This state of affairs not only diminishes their fidelity at work but turns some of them into security risks as they may become prone to inducement into criminal activity, especially within the hospital. “