Exodus of medical workers: We will convert brain drain to brain gain – Ehanire

Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire has said the federal government is presently working on converting the brain drain to brain gains, even as he said performance-based remuneration for healthcare workers would be introduced  to stem the tide.

He spoke in Abuja Tuesday  at the 17th edition of the PMB Scorecard series(2015-2023) organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

In recent time, Nigeria has been worst hit by drain with about 10,296of the nation’s medical  doctors currently plying their trade in the United Kingdom.

But the minister said there was no cause for alarm as the situation was not peculiar to Nigeria. kip Ad

Responding to a question, the minister would not agree that it was really an exodus of medical doctors.

“We are also looking at how to introduce a better form of performance-based remuneration so that doctors don’t just receive a simple grade-level salary but according to their work, so we try to measure performance and let people be happy that they have properly been rewarded for what they have done.

“What we are also doing is to do conversion of brain drain to brain gain and we are doing that with a new mechanism that is being set up now to engage Nigerian doctors and pharmacists in the diaspora and connect them with universities and hospitals because modern technology makes it possible for somebody to be delivering a lecture in New York and we have people here looking here and hearing it. So, we can have those who can transfer knowledge to do so.

“In absolute terms, I had a conversation with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, and they told us that Nigeria is actually producing about 3,000 doctors every year from our universities, and about 800 doctors trained overseas are returning, and 1,000 is going out.

“So, in reality, there is a net balance, but the employment rate is not commensurate. There are areas where they say they are not going to employ doctors because they are too expensive, so they employ nurses. Some don’t even employ nurses, they will rather employ community health workers because they are cheaper.

“There are many unemployed doctors in the country. Where we suffer is that the consultants are leaving and it takes time to train new people to be able to take their place and that is why we want to engage those very senior doctors in a better way to give them better opportunities to earn, because a lot of them will go and do private practice outside but you can also do your private practice inside and improve the access to specialised care and people will have a better feeling of utilising their time,” the minister said.