COVID-19 vaccine : Brain drain ‘killing’ healthcare sector in Nigeria – Medical expert

 

A Consultant Urologist Surgeon at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Prof. Nuhu Dakum has said that brain drain in the medical sector is detrimental to the development of the sector.

He stressed that medical brain drain had created loss of skilled manpower to train incoming doctors and other health care workers in the sector.

Dakum stated this while delivering a paper at the opening ceremony of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) 2021 National Executive Council meeting in Jos.

The programme is entitled “Brain Drain and its effect on Medical Education in Nigeria.“

Dakum said that brain drain in the medical sector was getting worse and detrimental to medical education.

He said the development had created a generational gap in the sector.

“A generational gap has been created as the top is heavy and the bottom light. This means that we have more consultants and fewer resident doctors who are the main workforce.

“Brain drain has also created an inefficient health care system due to insufficient manpower resulting in poor health care outcome,” he said.

Dakum said that the factors responsible for brain drain in the sector should be addressed urgently to avoid a total collapse of the medical system in the country,

He also called for increased funding in the sector.

Also speaking, a Consultant Public Health Physician at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Prof. Ayuba Zoakah, said that the country’s healthcare system was optimal.

Zoakah who was the guest lecturer, in a paper on “Healthcare Delivery in the Face of Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases”, maintained that the healthcare system should be strengthened in the era of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

Zoakah attributed the rise to emerging and re-emerging diseases to possible factors such as the human demography changes, increased susceptibility to infection due to immunosuppression, stress/lifestyle and nutritional changes.

He called for improvement of funding in the sector and health care service delivery.

Earlier, the President of MDCAN, Prof. Kenneth Ozoilo, in his welcome address said that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore the deficiencies in the Nigerian health sector as a result of underfunding and years of neglect.

Ozoilo added that the NEC meeting would provide an avenue to chart a path forward for the medical profession and the health sector.