MD laments manpower shortage as 51 health workers resign from FMC

*Reps Panel vow to stop medical tourism, brain drain

The House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions has vowed to take necessary steps to reverse the brain drain in the health sector and the medical tourism to reduce the outflow of Nigerians seeking medical care abroad and doctors travelling outside the country to seek greener pastures.

The committee however said that for medical tourism to be reduced, the country must address the issues of manpower, equipment, infrastructure in the various health care institutions, stressing that the committee will ensure that these are achieved especially in the Federal Capital Territory.

Meanwhile, Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja, Prof Sa’ad Ahmed, has disclosed that about 51 healthcare workers have left the hospital since the beginning of 2023 adding that the hospital is currently facing manpower shortage.

Speaking during an oversight visit to the hospital yesterday, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions, Amos Magaji, noted that the National Assembly was very passionate about health care delivery in Nigeria and wanted to reverse the issue of medical tourism by making the nation’s hospitals work so that people from other countries can seek medical treatment here in Nigeria.

He said, “One of the key areas this committee is really looking into is the reversal of medical tourism. We are not saying it should be stopped but it should be reversed. We want to see that people are coming from Niger Republic, Ghana, and Egypt to access healthcare here.

“We are going to see that medical tourism is reduced, and it cannot reduce until we deal with the issues of manpower, equipment, infrastructure, and we will see that these are achieved especially in the Federal Capital Territory.”

Magaji noted that the government needs to equip our hospitals through may be through Public Private Partnership (PPP) considering that the budget for health is very low adding that the committee will also focus on improving the budgetary allocation for the health sector.

The lawmaker observed that there is need to ensure that shortage of human resources for health is addressed by making enrollment into medical schools easy, attractive and competitive.

Magaji added that the committee was working towards ensuring that the hospital gets another land allocation to expand its health services.

He said, “On the issue of budget for health, everyone knows that the entire budget for this country is not there, and the budget for health is something to look into, we are doing everything to ensure that if the nation prospers, the budget for the nation will improve. We have dilapidated infrastructure everywhere, if you go to the education and power sectors, they are also complaining.

“That is why we are on this oversight function so that we look at what we have before the budget is presented, and we can see areas of need where you truly need intervention, this hospital is dear to us, we need to pay more attention to health because health is wealth.

“Until you are sick, you will not know the value of health, and no matter how much you have, there are certain emergencies that if you do not have hospitals to respond to you, you would have died before reaching the Mediterranean Sea, and we need to have our system working.”

He also pledged that there would be intervention in the health sector to ensure affordable, accessible, and quality healthcare in the country.

On his part, the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Hon Adedayo Adesola, noted that Japa syndrome is an all-time phenomenon and if the country makes conditions favorable for health workers, they will not be leaving in droves as currently being witnessed in the country.

Earlier, Prof Ahmed lamented that every department in the hospital is affected by brain drain adding that the hospital is currently facing manpower shortage.

“Currently, we are facing a manpower shortage in the Ear, Nose and Throat department. We equally have challenges in the department of neurology as we only have one consultant there, we run clinics once a week there. We also have the challenge in the cardiology department, and more people are coming for those services. In physiotherapy, about four or five people have left. Every department is affected.

“This year alone, about 51 staff have left the facility. It is biting, and it will continue to bite. We can talk about one-for-one replacement, but sometimes you cannot get that level of experience of the person that is leaving”, he said.

The don, however, urged the committee to look at the report of the health reform committee on improving the health sector.

Ahmed said they have discovered that the as that bringing healthcare service without the use of technology is actually wasting people’s time and as a result, had deployed technological solutions for effective and efficient service delivery adding that the hospital now have an effective electronic medical record system.

Across the hospital.

He stated that the hospital is collaborating with Georgia State University in Atlanta, area of prostate cancer at breast cancer genomics research and is currently working out another collaboration with the University of Alabama Birmingham, and will soon sign an MOU.

“So there are many other collaborations that we do have with bodies both within and outside Nigeria. Now in terms of infrastructure development, I have told you what the wide range of services that we need. And of course, I can tell you that the client outpatient visits have increased from five to 6000 in 2020. The Quran is around 20,000 a month. That means we want to expand on Alpha.