{"id":17237,"date":"2019-04-25T10:03:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T10:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=17237"},"modified":"2019-04-25T10:03:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T10:03:59","slug":"doctors-in-nigeria-how-loquacious-medical-doctor-chris-ngige-got-it-all-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=17237","title":{"rendered":"Doctors in Nigeria: How loquacious medical doctor, Chris Ngige, got it all wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

FACT CHECK: Does Nigeria have enough doctors \u2013 as claimed by Ngige?<\/strong>
\nBy thecable.ng<\/strong>
\nOn Wednesday, Chris Ngige, minister of labour, said Nigeria has \u201cmore than enough\u201d medical doctors to cater for its needs. Ngige, who was speaking during a Channels Television programme, said there is nothing wrong with some of the doctors seeking green pastures elsewhere.
\nThe minister, who himself is a medical doctor, said: \u201cWe have more than enough doctors. You can quote me. We have surplus. If you have surplus, you export. There is nothing wrong in them travelling out. When they go abroad, they earn money and send them back home here.\u201d
\nThe minister\u2019s statement has drawn criticisms, but how correct is he?
\nCLAIM ONE: Nigeria has enough doctors<\/strong>
\nAdewole says doctors are not enough in Nigeria
\nWhile presenting a paper at the annual general meeting and scientific conference of the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) in 2018, Isaac Adewole, a professor of medicine and minister of health, said as of May 2018, 88,692 doctors were registered in the country.
\nAdewole cited data from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the professional health regulatory agency for medicine, dentistry and alternative medicine in Nigeria, in his speech. Of that number, he said only 45,000 \u2014 representing 50 percent of them \u2014 are currently practising in Nigeria. This means with a population of 198 million,\u00a0according to the National Population Commission (NPC), there is just one doctor for 4,400 Nigerians.
\nThis is definitely far from being enough to take care of Nigeria\u2019s population, especially when compared to the\u00a0World Health Organsiation (WHO)\u00a0recommendation which is one doctor to 600 patients.
\nThe problem of inadequate doctors is not new. Figures from earlier years also show the number of doctors in the country was never \u201cmore than enough\u201d. In 2013,\u00a0WHO statisticsshowed that there were just \u201c3.8 doctors for every 10,000 Nigerians\u201d, which translates to one doctor for 2,631 individuals.
\nIS NIGERIA ALONE?<\/strong>
\nWHO data\u00a0showed that Nigeria is among the countries with very poor doctor-to-patient ratio as of 2013 (which is the most recent data from the country) especially when compared to developed countries.
\nAustria, for instance, has 49.3 doctors for every 10,000 citizens; 39 doctors for same in Argentina; 33.8 in Australia; 34.5 in Azerbaijan; 39.7 in Bulgaria; 45.1 in Georgia; 40 in Germany; 60 in Greece and as much as 73.3 in Croatia.
\nIsrael has 35 doctors for 10,000 patients; Italy, 39; Monaco, 65; the Netherlands, 33; Cote d\u2019Ivoire, 30; and South Africa, 7.4.
\nCLAIM TWO<\/strong>: Nigeria not experiencing brain drain in medical profession
\nMedical doctors at a recruitment exercise organised by the Saudi health ministry in Lagos in March 2018
\nNgige also said there is nothing to worry about over the situation which he said does not translate to brain drain. He said Nigeria still gains from the doctors\u2019 migration through foreign exchange earnings.
\nAccording to him, \u201cwhen they (doctors) go abroad, they earn money and send them back home here. Yes, we have foreign exchange earnings from them and not just oil. Will you call that brain drain? So, I don\u2019t see any loss.\u201d
\nBut how true is this?<\/strong>
\nIn 2018, a research by Africa Check showed that at least\u00a012 doctors leave Nigeria for the UK every week! And the situation is not becoming any better. Here is why:\u00a0an NOI survey in 2017\u00a0found out that nine in 10 Nigerian doctors were seeking opportunity to go and practise abroad \u2013 and while 98 percent of the respondents cited high taxes and deductions from salary as challenges that force doctors to consider leaving abroad, 92 percent gave their reasons as low work satisfaction while 91 percent cited poor salaries and emoluments.
\nChecks by TheCable revealed the major challenge of the country\u2019s health sector has been gross underfunding.\u00a0The crisis in the health sector has made the rich and powerful to seek medical attention abroad.
\nVERDICT<\/strong>: Ngige\u2019s claim that Nigeria has enough medical doctors is false. Available statistics also show the country is experiencing grievous brain drain in the medical profession and has every cause to worry over the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FACT CHECK: Does Nigeria have enough doctors \u2013 as claimed by Ngige? By thecable.ng On Wednesday, Chris Ngige, minister of labour, said Nigeria has \u201cmore than enough\u201d medical doctors to cater for its needs. Ngige, who was speaking during a Channels Television programme, said there is nothing wrong with some of the doctors seeking green […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5777,5773],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}