507 Lagos doctors arrive UK in two years – NMA
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Nigerian Medical Association, Lagos State chapter, has disclosed no fewer than 507 medical doctors practicing in the state have migrated to the United Kingdom in less than 24 months due to better conditions of service.
The association’s Chairman, Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu, disclosed this during an exclusive interview with PUNCH HealthWise, calling on the Federal and state governments to address the problem of brain drain in the health sector.
Olowojebutu stated that brain drain had become a big problem in Nigeria, warning that medicine might go into extinction in the country if the problem persisted and not treated as an emergency.
According to him, there is a lot of dearth of doctors in Nigeria, especially in Lagos State.
The NMA chairman said, “There is a very big challenge about brain drain. I have said several times that we have to be very deliberate about how we tackle this.
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” There is a pull and push syndrome that is affecting doctors leaving Lagos State. Last month alone, we had over 100 doctors who left Nigeria for the UK and about 80 of them were from Lagos State.
“During the COVID-19 in 2020, 81 doctors moved from Lagos to the UK. They had a special plane that came to carry them from the UK. Between March 2020 and October 2022, we lost 507 doctors from Lagos State alone to the UK.
The physician said there was a need for an emergency assessment and emergency meeting to curtail the problem.
