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Nigerian MedicalAssociation, NMA, Wednesday called on the federal and all state governments to declare a state of emergency on the health sector to address the issue of brain drain among medical doctors, saying that there is pull and push syndrome that is affecting doctors and other healthcare workers leaving the country.
The Chairman, NMA Lagos Branch, Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu, said that the menace of brain drain has been killing the country’s health sector, revealing that in December of 2022, more than 1,800 healthcare workers left the country for greener pasture.
He made this known during a stakeholders engagement with political party leadership and gubernatorial candidate in Lagos organized by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator in partnership with Legislative Initiative For Sustainable Development.
Olowojebutu warned that medicine as a profession “might go into extinction” in the country if the problem persists.
“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. There is a pull and push syndrome that is affecting doctors leaving Lagos State,” he declared.
“During 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 to the UK.
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“In December 2022 alone, we lost over 1,800 doctors and other healthcare workers to brain drain. We need to think of how to make healthcare attractive and sustainable.
“Before, we used to have young doctors traveling abroad for greener pastures, but now, even the consultants that are supposed to be training the young doctors are leaving the country.
“There is a dearth of doctors in Nigeria, especially in Lagos State. Some places don’t have specialties anymore because the specialists have left the country at this time”.
Olowojebutu urged the government to “critically treat the issue as an emergency” and solve the problem.
