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The leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association has urged the Federal Government to implement existing policies in the health sector, especially the National Policy on Health Workforce Retention, if it still wants to retain the few doctors and other health workers left in the country.
The NMA said the government does not need any new policy to address the japa syndrome that is gradually crippling the health sector but just the implementation of the existing ones.
The President of the NMA, Prof. Bala Audu, who made this assertion, said that unless the government improves the remuneration of doctors and provides them with equipment and tools to work with, it would be difficult for Nigerians to retain them.
President Bola Tinubu had in August approved the National Policy on Health Workforce Migration to address the challenges facing Nigeria’s health human resources.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate who disclosed this on his X handle, said the policy was more than just a response to the ongoing exodus of healthcare professionals but a comprehensive strategy to manage, harness, and reverse health worker migration.
“The National Policy on Health Workforce Migration addresses the critical challenges facing Nigeria’s health human resources. As the AU Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery Partnership, Mr President’s commitment to a resilient and robust healthcare system is powerfully reflected in this forward-looking policy”, the minister said.
Audu spoke at the NMA Healthcare and Medical Expo, which was recently held in Lagos and titled “Enhancing sustainability and efficiency in Nigeria’s private health sector in the quest to reverse medical tourism.”
He maintained that the country only required the implementation of existing policies to address the persistent brain drain in the health sector and not new policies.
The maternal health expert disclosed that Nigeria is the leading exporter of health professionals globally.
The don also stated that Nigeria loses $2 billion US dollars annually to medical tourism, stressing the need to reverse the trend.
The NMA boss said, “Currently, Nigeria is a major contributor to factors in healthcare globally. First, we export highly specialized manpower for health in terms of specialised and sub-specialised doctors, nurses, and other health professionals to different parts of the world.
“In addition, we also export many patients out of this country to seek healthcare in other countries such as the United Kingdom, USA, and India, among others. We are losing a lot in terms of budget and foreign currency.”
Audu, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology noted that when doctors and other healthcare professionals were remunerated with workspace security as well as equipment, it would enable the doctors function effectively.
He noted, “When remunerations are improved, Nigeria will be able to retain its doctors. The government should implement the existing policies. There are already existing policies that need to be implemented. I will give examples of these policies.
“We have the National Policy on Health Workforce Retention. It has several components including improvement of remuneration and welfare of healthcare professionals.
“The singular implementation of this policy is enough to retain healthcare professionals and improve the retention rate of our hospitals of these health professionals so that they can be more dedicated to providing the best healthcare services to our citizens.”
The gynaecologist also identified the provision of equipment in the nation’s hospitals as another major factor that could address the brain drain in the sector.
“The second thing the government needs to do is to ensure that equipment and tools needed for diagnosis for the treatment of patients are made easily available in our health facilities. Also, they need to be affordable by Nigerians”, he said.
To further address the brain drain challenge, the NMA president said the association had taken steps that would help reverse medical tourism in Nigeria so that Nigerians would not travel out of the country to seek healthcare.
“It is this gap that we are hoping to bridge both in the public and private sector and also attracts foreign patients to Nigeria”, he added.
The leadership of the NMA also recommended the adoption of public-private partnerships to reverse the trend.
They maintained that the adoption of public-private partnerships in the health sector would enhance sustainability and efficiency.
In his submission, the 1st Vice President of the NMA, Dr Benjamin Olowojebutu, listed the various benefits Nigeria would gain by reversing medical tourism.
Olowojebutu, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the Expo, assured that partnership with private equity and private institutions would greatly contribute to fixing the problem.
“We have a hospital that does 16 kidney transplants every month. We have a hospital that can do cardiovascular surgery in a few hours. We have a hospital coming from Niger, from Mali, to see what we do,” he said.
