By Mazhun Idris
A relentless brain drain in Nigeria's healthcare sector has amplified the trend that started around four decades ago with a trickle of medical professionals moving overseas in search of better opportunities.
As doctors and frontline workers leave the country in droves, drawn by the lure of higher salaries, better working conditions, infrastructure, and quality of life abroad, the public healthcare system back home is buckling under the strain of providing services with a depleted workforce.
Africa's most populous country, inhabited by 230 million people, already had multiple challenges to contend with. Healthcare bereft of personnel and overstretched in terms of capacity has been the hardest to handle.
Nigeria's minister of health and social welfare, Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, has been vocal about workforce migration at the cost of the country's interest.
"Nigerian doctors and nurses are being wooed with unethical recruitment practices by some countries," he tells TRT Afrika, also calling out healthcare professionals who choose to work abroad after training in the country.
So, how can the government lessen the impact of the mass exits, if not prevent them?
Dr Pate cites some "policy adjustments" being implemented by his ministry as a possible antidote to the problem.
Many state-run hospitals across the Western African nation are currently short-staffed, affecting the quality of medical care and leading to longer wait times for patients.
The potential economic cost of the problem could be even more pronounced. Diminished medical care invariably translates into preventable and curable diseases going unattended in hospitals that lack the number of medical hands they need.
Experts say that a measure of public well-being in a country is the state of the healthcare system, which also tells on mortality rates.
Emigration cycle
The trade-off is the same for most Nigerian diaspora in the healthcare sector.
While leaving home is always a tricky decision to make, they choose to swap challenging work conditions and inadequate facilities in their homeland for more lucrative careers that come with the promise of a better quality of life and opportunities for professional development in their host countries.
Dr Aisha Kurfi, a chartered physiotherapist working in the UK, left Nigeria in 2023. She acknowledges that sustained migration of professionals poses a significant threat to Nigeria's healthcare system.
"The exodus is an alarming trend primarily driven by more competitive salaries on offer from foreign hospitals," she tells TRT Afrika.
The US and Europe, where expatriates are counted among the best hands in the medical sector, benefit the most from the Nigerian brain drain.
While Nigerian medical professionals augment healthcare abroad with their expertise, services in local hospitals and medical centres in their country worsen because of understaffing, infrastructure stagnation and growing public requirements.
The primary battle for the Nigerian health ministry is to stem the emigration by improving working conditions for homegrown professionals and rebuilding health infrastructure.
Averting a crisis
Underscoring the importance of addressing infrastructural deficits in the Nigerian public health sector, Dr Kurfi cites the shortage of modern equipment and adequate medical supplies in government hospitals as a major lacuna.
"Medical personnel often complain about hectic work shift patterns and inflexible working opportunities, coupled with overwhelming patient loads due to shortage of workers in the public healthcare system," she tells TRT Afrika.
Health minister Dr Pate reels off a list of incentives the Nigerian government is rolling out to retain human resources in its medical sector, especially public workers in rural areas.
He believes that those who stay back in their country are increasingly motivated to serve owing to ongoing improvements in their working conditions, which is a big factor in retaining them.
The minister rues the fact that the country does not produce enough personnel from medical and health schools to address the shortage of frontline health workers. Avenues for professional upskilling are also few.
“We are improving the infrastructure, equipment and residential facilities around primary healthcare centres. Nigeria is going through a development phase, and we are trying to rebuild a system that has suffered from underinvestment for a very long time," he says.
Budgetary scale-up
While health sector reforms continue, the government has been appealing to foreign investors to invest in its healthcare for better service delivery.
More budgetary expenditure is being directed towards expanding the training capacity of the country's medical, pharmacology and nursing schools.
In his call to action, Dr Pate hopes for a sustainable solution to the brain drain through improved healthcare standards, infrastructure upgrades, and systemic changes.
The thrust of his mission is to restore the confidence of talented and experienced healthcare workers in the local system and curb the likelihood of their exodus from the country.
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