Brain drain: We’re exporting our best doctors, says NMA president

The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof. Innocent Uja, has likened the way medical practitioners leave Nigeria to practice abroad to sitting on a time bomb.

He, therefore called on the Federal Government to do something urgent about the situation.

This is just as the Joint Health Sector Union advised the government to improve working conditions for health workers in the country.

On Sunday, he said, “The issue of brain drain in health sector should not be taken lightly because it is like sitting on a time bomb.

“The issue must be properly discussed on the right table between Federal Government and stakeholders, because the things are going, we exporting our best and producing for other countries.

“If we are not good, why do they employ us? Our doctors are well trained and anywhere they go, they will be employed.

“Though, we are not valued in Nigeria, when you go to Europe and America, there is a report recently that over 5,700 Nigerian doctors are practicing in UK.

“On a monthly basis, many Nigerian doctors are travelling out. The issue of brain drain in the nation’s health sector must be properly discussed”.

Uja faulted the recent suggestion by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, that medical workers trained by the government should be made to sign a bond that would make them serve the country for at least nine years before they can reconsider relocating to another country.

The NMA president noted that with the rules of international convention, no one could stop mobility of labour.

“The truth of the matter is that if you prevent people from going and they stay in Nigeria and are not working, will you force any doctor to see a patient? It is demotivation. It is not something to be contemplated at all.

“The best thing is to understand the factors responsible for brain drain in health sector and stop them before they become monsters”, Uja said.