“The West Coast is looking for our specialists. So many medical practitioners are now going to places like Sierra Leone and The Gambia and the wages they earn in the neighbourhood of 3000, 4000 dollars is about three to four times what they earn back home,” he said.
***
Prof Emem Bassey, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, has called for a concerted efforts toward addressing the poaching of Nigeria’s health professionals by foreign countries.
Bassey, also the Chairman, Committee of Chief Medical Directors/Medical Directors of Federal Tertiary Hospitals, said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on job racketeering in MDAs in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said that apart from countries in Europe and America, some African countries were also poaching medical health specialists from Nigeria adding pressure to the county’s health sector.
“The West Coast is looking for our specialists. So many medical practitioners are now going to places like Sierra Leone and The Gambia and the wages they earn in the neighbourhood of 3000, 4000 dollars is about three to four times what they earn back home,” he said.
He said the health sector was undergoing a major crisis in terms of manpower as health professionals were leaving Nigeria in droves and bestowing on other countries the benefits due Nigeria.
Bassy said doctors always resorted to strikes because the government often made promises they knew they might not meet.
He said medical specialists such as doctors, nurses and other specialists including laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, radiographers were leaving the country in droves.
He said that the specialists in the country were faced with the problem of replacement of those health workers, adding that in spite of being granted waiver to recruit, getting the waiver was a tortuous process.
Bassey said it had been difficult to comply with federal character recruitment demands due to the urgency of the need to replace various health professionals who left.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Yusuf Gagdi, pleaded with the doctors to be patriotic by staying back to contribute to the development of the country, although they had better options abroad.
He said the committee would work toward addressing the need to balance compliance to the demands of federal character and filling up urgent vacancies in the health sector.
“I admit there is a lack of advanced medical facilities in our health sector. This is a fact and we must as a government pay attention to that.
“Where we are confused is the aspect of lack of patriotism. We admit there is a brain drains and are trying to find solutions,” he said.
He thanked professional health specialists working in Nigeria for their commitment to stay back in Nigeria to add value to their fatherland.
