There is trouble in the House of Health in Nigeria. The Nigerian healthcare system is in disarray. Medical doctors are enraged, complaining loudly, and ready for a brawl. Their complaint is directed at a proposed Bill in the House of Representatives that would amend the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) Act.
The bill in question seeks to deny Nigeria-trained medical or dental practitioners from being granted full licences until they have worked for a minimum of five years in the country.
The doctors’ counterparts in the legal profession, the lawyers, have also condemned the bill wondering if our representatives in the House were not legislating on forced labour by the proposed Bill. The lawyers described the proposed Bill as not only contradictory but discriminatory and self-defeating which would not achieve anything.
The bill which is part of the measures to halt the increasing brain drain in the nation’s health system by doctors in search of greener pastures was met with mixed feelings even from within the Green Chamber. The argument was that the doctors who enjoyed taxpayer subsidies on their training should give back to society by working for a minimum number of years in Nigeria before exporting their skills abroad. While many lawmakers supported the bill, others opposed it and called for more flexible options. But a majority voice vote passed the bill for second reading.
This development has been met by a deluge of responses from medical doctors, their professional associations, affiliate groups, and several Nigerians at home and abroad.
These responses are not unexpected because the spate of brain drain in the health sector has been on the rise over the years. In fact, over the past eight years, an estimated 13,609 Nigerian doctors have migrated to the UK alone. The figure is third behind Pakistan and India. Worse still, the Nigerian doctor-to-patient ratio is at one doctor to 5,000 patients, which is far beyond the World Health Organisation’s recommended ratio of one doctor to 600 patients.