Nigeria has about 24, 000 actively licensed physicians caring for its over 200 million population as result of brain drain in the country, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has said.
NMA President, Ojinmah Uche, stated this yesterday in Abuja during a policy dialogue on Nigeria’s health sector brain drain and its implications for sustainable child and family health service delivery, organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Partnership for Advancing Child and Family Health at Scale project of the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC).
He said this gives a horrible true ratio of approximately 1 doctor to 10,000 patients ratio.
He said, “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 kilometers from their abodes to get medical attention where available thus Nigeria making access to healthcare a rarity.”
Ojinmah said based on the World Health Organisation 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.
