The Medical Guild, an association of Lagos State Government Employed Medical Doctors, has decried the non-recruitment and replacement of doctors in the state-owned health institutions, lamenting that the neglect had led to shortage of doctors in public health system.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on its forthcoming 2018 Scientific Conference/Annual General Meeting, Chairman of the Guild, Dr. Babajide Saheed, noted that the problem was not limited to Lagos alone, stressing that inadequacy of doctors was affecting medical practice in both federal and state-owned health institutions across the country.
The conference, with the main theme, “Maximixing earning potentials for doctors in Nigeria” and subthemes, “Early planning for retirement; Doctors and their health”, commences on December 4th, 2018.
Saheed who blamed the migration of Nigerian-trained medical doctors to overseas countries on government’s poor attitude to their welfare, reiterated that the shortage of doctors had become a major problem in health care delivery.
He said that things are getting worse by the day as a lot of doctors now leave the country on daily basis.
“We have complained about the issue of shortage of doctors for many years. We have many of our doctors working abroad. Only few are at home and over-worked. Yet, the government has not seen the need to recruit new doctors and then replace those that have retired and left the system. In fact, it is not doing replacement that will not cost it money let alone recruitment.”
He went on: “Government is aware of the problem and therefore, must address it. Our doctors are leaving the country for obvious reasons. They are faced with various challenges such as poor remuneration, lack of training and retraining, inadequate equipment, poor residency programmes, unemployment, among others.”
Listing the way forward, Saheed called on the government to urgently address the issues before the situation gets out of hand.
“We believe that this can be addressed by early replacement of doctors who leave the system as well as recruitment of doctors into the service.
“The solution is that the level of recruitment of doctors at the state level should be done by the governor while the head of service or commissioner should oversee the replacement of doctors.
“A governor should not dabble into the issue of replacement. That was what caused strike at LASUTH last time.”
He said the 2018 conference which will witness various activities including outreach programmes and awards would be used to address the issue of brain in the health system.
Away from the conference, Saheed called on the Lagos state government to follow the state’s Health Sector Reform Law 2006 as well as due process in the appointment of officers to the positions of permanent secretary in the state’s Primary Healthcare Board, the Health Service Commission and the Ministry of Health.
According to him, the position of PS and that of HSC are to be filled by doctors and not non-medically qualified persons.
