Lara Adejoro The Nigerian Medical Association has lamented that the doctor-patient ratio in the country is worsening, noting that it is now about 1,000 per cent, which is less than the World Health Organisation’s recommendation. This was made known by the President of the NMA, Bala Audu, at an interactive session with the media in Abuja on Wednesday. He said, “The doctor-patient ratio is about 1,000 per cent less than what the World Health Organisation recommended.
Recently, there was a medical school that graduated its medical students and I think they did a survey and asked the new graduates if they would stay or prefer to leave. Your guess is as good as mine. It’s something that is worsening, but it is something that we can mitigate.
“And I think that is the essence of such interactive forums, not to keep crying about our problems, but to profile solutions to these problems,” Audu stated. Recall that many Nigerian healthcare workers have left the country for greener pastures and experts have attributed the worrisome increase to emigration. The push factors, according to them are inadequate equipment, worsening insecurity, poor working conditions, and poor salary structure.
Data from the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria showed that about 1,056 consultants left the country to seek greener pastures between 2019 and 2023. The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors also revealed that over 900 of its members left for Europe between January and Se.
