The Nigeria Medical Association has warned that the shortage of healthcare professionals and personnel is a crisis, urging the local government in the state of Akwa Ibom, the wealthiest in the country, to establish at least seven medical training facilities in this region to address the growing workforce gap, reports Punch.
The association’s chairman in Akwa Ibom, Professor Aniekan Peter, raised the concern last week at the Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference in the state.
He said local authorities had consistently failed to meet employment targets for medical workers, and that urgent measures were needed to bridge the shortfall.
“If there were vacancies for 100 000 teachers in this state, you will find them immediately, but recently, when the State governor approved employment for 400 doctors, we couldn’t get them. It means there’s something wrong somewhere.
“And then we were looking for 700 nurses and we couldn’t get any until we relaxed some of the criteria. So it’s time we begin to refocus our attention for the future of healthcare in Akwa Ibom.”
Peter added that authorities needed to look at medical education as an investment rather than a burden, if it hoped to strengthen its healthcare system.
While commending the recent go-ahead to establish a medical school at the local Akwa Ibom State University, he said the initiative was insufficient, that other states already have multiple medical training institutions.
“We appreciate the … approval for Akwa Ibom State University to start doing medicine and other medical courses. But that is one out of four … so it’s still a failure, just 25%.
“Medicine is not just a course, it’s an empowerment and any state or country that doesn’t recognise this will not get it right. We must have at least seven medical schools in this state,” he said arguing that there was already infrastructure in place that could be upgraded into medical training institutions.
Punch article – A’Ibom NMA decries doctor shortage, seeks more medical schools (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Nigerian doctors down tools over pay, welfare issues
Africa faces 5m shortage of healthcare workers
60% of foreign-trained doctors fail Nigerian practice exams