Over 4,765 Nigerian Doctors Working In UK, Says Anyaoku
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Loading ...By Nedum Noble
Former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has blamed mass migration of nation’s medical doctors for greener pastures overseas to lack of adequate management of nation’s hospitals by governments at all levels.
He revealed that over 4,765 Nigerian doctors are currently working in the United Kingdom, which according to him, constitute 1.7 percent of the total of the UK’s medical workforce.
Anyaoku spoke during the celebration of the110th anniversary of the Iyi-Enu Mission Hospital and the launching of an ultramodern Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Ogidi, Idemili NorthLocal Government Area of Anambra State,
He said the result of the ridiculously low budgetary allocation to the health sector over the years, combined with what was often referred to as “the Nigerian factor”‘, had been the reason the nation was assailed with ill-equipped hospitals that had very low grade facilities.
According him,” People of my age feel nostalgic for the old days in the early years of our country’s independence. During that period, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, the Commonwealth ranked Nigeria 4th in the hierarchy of health sector efficiency countries.
“In fact, at that time, ours was a country that itself was attracting medical tourism on account of the quality of the services offered by the University Teaching Hospital, Ibadan.
“But today, it is lamentable that the federal government’s endorsement of the world Health Organization ( WHO), recommendation that 13 percent of the national budget should be allocated to the health sector, as well as the African Union’s Abuja declaration in 2001 that 15 percent of the national budget should be allocated to the health sector, only a paltry sum of between about 3.4 percent and 5.6 percent are allocated”
Anyaoku who listed the Iyi-Enu Mission hospital Ogidi as one of the health institutions experiencing decline in the country, regretted that most of the hospitals across the country have been reduced to mere “consulting clinics”.
“Recently, we had a big shock to the national psyche, when it was revealed that even the Aso Rock Clinic that attends to the nation’s highest political leaders and their families was completely lacking in basic facilities like drugs and even syringes.
“It is, therefore no surprise that when he visited Nigeria recently, Bill Gates, the Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in criticizing Nigeria for spending relatively far too little on the development of its human capital, pointed to the nation’s health sector alongside the education sector as some of the most neglected.
“Bill Gates’ testimonial for the Nigerian health sector was not at all comforting, not when Nigeria was mentioned as having the worst maternal mortality rate in the league of countries that had experienced long periods of devastating Civil wars, and had no comparable human and materials resources like Nigeria.
“Yet, Nigeria’s dismal record and bad reputation in the health sector cannot come to anybody as a surprise, not when highly qualified Nigerian Doctors are voting with their feet,fleeing and abandoning the country in droves to work abroad,” he added.
The elder statesman however commended the authorities of Iyi-Enu Hospital under the leadership of the Bishop on the Niger, Rt. Rev. Owen Nwokolo, for accepting the challenge of restoring Iyi-Enu Hospital to its past glory.
“But in this highly desirable restoration, I enjoin the management to take seriously, the importance of specific training of technicians for the maintenance of the sophisticated diagnostic, dialysis and the MRI equipment that are installed,” Anyaoku added.
Among the dignitaries that graced the occasion were the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu and the traditional ruler of Ogidi, igwe Alex Onyido.
