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From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Medical brain drain, building resilient health system and vaccine hesitancy would take centre stage as the 46th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of West African College of Physicians (WACP) Nigeria Chapter, begins in Enugu, today.
Chairman of the body, Prof. Jeremiah Madaki, said no fewer than 300 physicians would attend the event to review critical issues of public health importance in the various sessions, including scientific presentations.
He said the conference would among other things, address the issue of building a resilient health system for the sub-region in view of emerging and reemerging pandemics such as the COVID-19, Lassa Fever, Monkey pox and others.
Madaki posited that Nigeria was in big trouble in the face of the emerging diseases unless it evolved a resilient health system.
He listed poor remuneration, insecurity and lack of modern equipment/tools as some of the drivers of medical brain drain in the country, but noted that the college was committed to producing well-trained personnel for the healthcare sector.
“We will continue to train high quality physicians in all specialties of medicine. We have already reviewed in recent times our curriculums in a way that internationally, Nigerian trained physicians certified by the college and are in high demand.”
So, we’re looking forward to how we can train and retrain and hope that we can make recommendations to the government to see the need to address the economic aspect of why people are leaving the country,” Madaki said.
Secretary of WACP, Prof. Albert Avpolu rated medical practice in West Africa high, noting that almost all the countries in the sub-region came out tops in managing the COVID-19 pandemic because of their resilient, adaptive and innovative health systems.
