Why native doctors may start running our hospitals soon — NMA chair

Dr Babatunde Rosiji, Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association’s South West Zone and also the NMA’s chairman in Ekiti State, tells ABIODUN NEJO that government can halt the spiraling brain drain by addressing the push and pull factors

Doctors in public hospitals in Ekiti State say they are being owed arrears of salaries; what is the NMA doing about that?

Our colleagues working with the state government at the Hospital Management Board are owed two months; those at the local governments are owed five months, and those at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital are owed three months. This happened when EKSG said it was using two allocations to pay one month’s salary, skipping salaries, and stuff like that.

The state government, however, has in the last three weeks paid a month’s salary to our colleagues in the local governments, which is a step in the right direction. We only wish the government good luck in expediting the process of clearing the remaining backlogs.

…In Ekiti, people complain about doctors in public hospitals. Why is this so?

Talking about Ekiti, we expect a minimum of two doctors in each of the 16 local governments, i.e., 32 doctors to take care of the 349 health centres at the primary healthcare level but unfortunately, at the last count, there were only 12 doctors.

Out of the 12 doctors, two of them just resigned because they got federal appointments, leaving us with only 10 doctors. Two of the remaining 10 will be retiring next year.

At the secondary level, which comprises three specialist hospitals and 15 general hospitals, ideally, we need 306 doctors (270 medical officers, consultants, senior doctors, and 36 house officers) to run the hospitals but at the moment, we have 80 doctors, a deficit of 226. In Ekiti State, there are general hospitals with one doctor. That doctor is expected to provide 24 hours service for 365 days but we have forgotten that that doctor also has a wife and children that need his presence. When citizens get to that hospital and they don’t meet that doctor, the next thing you hear is a politician calling to ask, “Why is there no doctor in that hospital?” Do you want that doctor to kill himself? The best are general hospitals, where you have two doctors. The two doctors will be the ones to do everything. It is a problem with our system.

Across the board, from primary to secondary to tertiary, the system is leaking. We are just one major crisis away from having the healthcare system collapse in Ekiti State. There is fire on the mountain; we need to run fast to save the health sector, especially in Ekiti State from total collapse. We only pray that the appropriate authorities concerned will listen and do the needful because, as I said jokingly, I hope it will not get to the point where we will be seeing native doctors in our hospitals.

Is the situation that hopeless?

I said that because where we are today, we are putting up advertisements for the employment of doctors, and nobody is responding. That shows you how unattractive working with the state government has become. If we are not attractive, people will have other options, and we will only have ourselves to blame.