- Minister of health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has pointed out that the doctor-patient ratio in Nigeria is not what it should be, as there are about 5,000 patients to just one doctor
- No African country has met the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients
- According to Adewole, in order to keep doctors in the country, there needs to be a re-evaluation of the reward system
Prof Isaac Adewole, Nigeria's minister of health, has offered reasons why about 50 percent of the country's trained doctors are either practicing abroad, not practicing at all or are dead.
In an interview with The Guardian, the minister noted that not all doctors could be specialists as the country does not have space for everybody. He urged medical doctors to develop entrepreneurial capabilities and look beyond medicine.
Legit.ng gathers that he said: “That is the available data, about 50 percent or a little less. But when you look at the doctor-patient ratio, it is not what I would love to see, but it does not constitute a human resource crisis as of today.
“My challenge as a doctor and minister is that I will like to see the distribution reprioritised. I would want to see more doctors in the rural areas and I am going to work with the ministry, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), to post doctors to rural areas, at least to local government area headquarters. Rather than post them to the Ministry of Health, teaching hospitals, let them function at general hospitals.
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“Then we use nurses and midwives to drive our Primary Health Care (PHC). When you look at doctor to patient ratio in Nigeria, it is about one to 5,000. In South Africa it is about 1:4,000. The only country that is far ahead of us is Egypt which is about 1:1,235.”
Adewole also reacted to the crisis in the resident doctors’ training and his earlier comment that some doctors could be farmers.
He said: “I have said it many times that really, I was quoted out of context and the message was lost. What I said was borne out of reality that not all doctors can be specialists because we do not have space for everybody.
“Currently, I made mention of one of our hospitals that interviews 800 people and has room for less than 150, which is less than 1:5.
"The last time University College Hospital (UCH) did recruitment test for residents into Obstetrician and Gyneacology (O&G) department, over 200 persons applied for six positions. They set examinations for them and I think about 50 passed and yet only six of them were needed.”
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Despite the challenges, Adewole stated that Nigeria has the third best doctor-patient ratio of one doctor to 5,000 patients compared to 1:4,000 in public healthcare in South Africa and 1:300 in private healthcare in South Africa.
He pointed out that Egypt has the best doctor-patient ratio in Africa with 1:1,235. Others are Ghana (1:14,310); Tanzania (1:20,000); Ethiopia (1:118,000); Kenya (1:16,000); and Cameroon (1:40,000). However, no African country has met the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients (1:600).
Adewole explained why Nigeria has not met the WHO recommendation, stating: “That is the ideal, but only few countries have attained that. We need more doctors. We need to change the reward system.
"I just came back from India where doctors are given free accommodation. They are not only given free accommodation, the faculty staffs are paid to attend international conferences every year.
“We really need to look at our reward system to keep our doctors here. What we are also doing is to attract those that have gone to come back home. Not to stay for life but to impact knowledge and offer help to our people.”
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Professor Usman Ahmed, the provost of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Federal University, Dutse, said that Nigeria needs an additional 155,000 doctors at the ratio of one doctor to 1000 people to achieve the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
The UCH aims to ensure that all people have access to the needed services of sufficient quality without exposing persons (recipients) to financial hardship.
Ahmed, who is also a professor of health sciences, University of Manchester, UK stated that data from the Federal Ministry of Health showed that Nigeria had 45,000 doctors registered and practicing in Nigeria with a ratio of one doctor to 4008 people.
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