Nigeria needs to urgently recruit doctors

Nigerian doctors have gone on strike to demand the government immediately recruit medics for massively under-staffed public hospitals.

“Our first request is for the government to quickly replace the doctors and nurses that have left the system. A lot of our colleagues have left the country in search of greener pastures,” said Dr Emeka Innocent Orji, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (Nard).

Their “total and indefinite strike” was also because an earlier pay deal had not been honoured by the government, he said.

Nard members were “breaking down and dying” because of strenuous working conditions – and patients were also being affected by the lack of manpower caused by the “brain drain”.

Dr Orji said it was in the government’s power to quickly recruit doctors as there were Nigerian medics available, adding urgency was needed before they too decided to leave the country.

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One place Nigerian medics are heading to is the UK, where their numbers rose from 4,765 in 2017 to 10,986 in 2023, according to the International College of Surgeons, Nigerian Section (ICS-NS).

Nigeria now has a ratio of one doctor to more than 4,000 patients. The World Health Organization recommends it be one doctor to 600 patients.