By Chukwuma Umeorah
As criticisms continue to trail the bill seeking to retain Nigeria-trained doctors to practice for a minimum of five years within the country before being granted full license, a Public Health Consultant and Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos, Alero Roberts, has said the root causes of the exodus of doctors from the country have not been properly addressed.
According to Roberts, the issues bordering around the exit of doctors from Nigeria were mainly as a result of poor condition of service, lack of standard healthcare facilities, insecurity, poor renumeration, lack of support, incentives among others.
She explained that medical/healthcare practitioners, particularly in Nigeria and globally go into the profession because of the passion and zeal that they have for it rather than benefits. However, she said many Nigerian doctors were forced to leave because of the many challenges they experience in the country.
“People who go into the health sciences, medicine included, are clearly not looking for money. For generations, we have known medicine is not the most lucrative venture. That means the people who go into medicine genuinely want to help themselves and other people. However, the problem is that they need condition of service, tools and a conducive work environment,” she said
A bill, seeking to retain Nigeria-trained doctors to practice for a minimum of five years within the country before being granted full licence, was sponsored by a Lagos lawmaker representing Oshodi Isolo II federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Ganiyu Johnson, as an approach to address the issue of medical brain drain in the country.
In the bill, Johnson said it was fair for medical practitioners who had benefitted from taxpayer subsidies to undergo mandatory service for a minimum number of years in Nigeria before leaving the country to practice abroad.
Roberts, who spoke on a national television programme, yesterday, vehemently opposed the bill even as she added that it was contrary to the constitution of the country to restrict the movement of any Nigerian regardless of profession.
Noting that the bill lacked the necessary research, statistics and consultations from relevant stakeholders in the profession, she said it was hostile to doctors and medical practitioners in general.
She maintained that the underlying issues causing doctors to leave the country should be squarely addressed rather than coming up with a bill that is aimed at restricting health workers, and she called for the withdrawal of the bill.
“This bill is clearly a populist move that is not based on science, or facts and I hope it does not go any further. It should be withdrawn and reviewed based on reliable data to address the real issues in terms of renumeration packages and upgrading health facilities and improving the condition of service for healthcare workers in this country,” she said.
Roberts said politicians and leaders who come up with such bills and proposals were not in tune with the reality of things in the country, particularly in the medical/healthcare profession as they hardly patronise any of these services in the country.
“If they had to use the local facilities, they would ensure even in their own constituencies, those facilities are up to international standard for their sake and that of their family members,” she said.