Brain Drain: Nigeria’s Doctor-Patient Ratio Now 1 To 5,000

Persistent brain drain by doctors is depleting the country’s medical care expertise and taking the country farther away from the recommended number of doctors per population, medical associations and experts have said.

Their position faulted the claim by the Minister of Health, Dr.  Osagie Ehanire that Nigeria has a sufficient number of medical doctors despite the brain drain.

The minister during a briefing on Tuesday stated that there were enough medical doctors in the country and that the number of doctors produced annually exceeds the number leaving the country.

But the umbrella body of medical doctors in the country, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), and other stakeholders said the claim by the minister was far from the truth.

The NMA insisted that just about 30,000 medical doctors were currently practising in Nigeria out of the about 80,000 registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) from 1960 to date.

The NMA also revealed that Nigeria currently has a doctor-to-patient ratio of one doctor to 4000-5000 patients instead of the one doctor to 600 patient ratio recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

– Dailytrust