Nigeria Medical Association Says Only 24,000 Doctors Are Left In The Country

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) decried the rate of brain drain bedeviling the country saying Nigeria is currently left with about 24,000 actively licensed medical doctors caring for over 200 million population.

Nigeria Left With 24,000 Doctors

NMA President, Ojinmah Uche disclosed this on Wednesday during a policy dialogue on Nigeria’s health sector brain drain and its implications for sustainable child and family health service delivery.

Uche said about 24,000 doctors are taking care of Nigeria’s over 200 million population, giving a horrible true ratio of approximately 1 doctor to 10,000 patients ratio.

He said: “So in eight years, USA produced and acquired (Brain drain) more doctors than Nigeria has produced from 1963-2021 (58 years).

“The real shocker comes when you note that what was reflected by the USA record were “actively licensed physicians” not just those registered to practice.

“At this juncture, I leave to your imagination the number of actively licensed physicians in Nigeria relative to those registered to practice as stated above.

“Available data places it around 24,000 giving a horrible true ratio of approximately 1:10,000. This ratio of 1:10,000 is a national average but in most states, the situation is palpably worse.”

The helmsman of the doctors’ association further said that the situation is worse in the northern part of the country where one doctor is available to treat 45,000, disclosing that in rural areas, people travel more than 30 kilometres before accessing a healthcare facility.

“Only one doctor is incredibly available to treat 30, 000 patients in some states in the south, while states in the North are as worse as one doctor to 45,000 patients.

“In some rural areas, patients have to travel more than 30 kilometres from their abodes to get medical attention where available thus making access to healthcare a rarity.

“Based on WHO established minimum threshold, a country needs a mix of 23 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 Population to deliver essential maternal and child health services. This explains why Nigeria ranks as one of the countries with the worst maternal and child mortality rates,” Uche added.

KanyiDaily had reported how the UK Government employed 353 Nigerian doctors in three months due to the nationwide strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).