A bill seeking to mandate Nigerian-trained medical and dental practitioners to practise in the country for at least five years as a condition for becoming fully licensed has been met with severe criticism. The bill which passed Second Reading in the House of Representatives on April 6, is sponsored by Hon. Abiodun Ganiyu Johnson (APC; Lagos) and seeks to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners\u2019 Act, 2004. A few Members who opposed the bill, expressed concern over possible fundamental rights violations and called for the bill to be reworked. Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, explained that the bill was not enough as a strategy to address brain drain in the health sector, adding that medical practitioners are not the only professionals leaving the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nigeria\u2019s healthcare system is in dire strait. It is grossly underfunded with less than 8% of the national budget apportioned to health. Public healthcare facilities are poorly maintained and ill-managed while several others are in dilapidation. It is these facilities that the majority of Nigerians are forced to attend for medical care. Premium medical facilities, mostly private are only available for those that can afford it. The elite and ruling political class take the route of medical tourism to other countries, meaning that political action to improve medical facilities will be hard in coming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another\naspect of the failings in the sector is poor remuneration of healthcare\nworkers. For many young medical practitioners, a 6-year undergraduate study,\nfurther elongated by strike action in public universities and poor remuneration\npackages, leave much to be desired. There is therefore little wonder why\nmedical practitioners whose skills are highly sought after globally, continue\nto leave the country in their numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brain\ndrain of professionals in this critical sector is indeed a matter of concern.\nHowever, this bill does not appear to be the best way to address the issue.\nMedical associations in and outside Nigeria have kicked against the bill,\ndescribing it as harsh, discriminatory and ill-informed. Experts in the sector\nhave suggested the improvement of \nworking conditions in the healthcare sector and increase of Nigeria\u2019s\nannual healthcare budget, as ways to improve the sector and consequently curb\nthe emigration of health workers who go to other countries in pursuit of better\nworking conditions and an improved standard of living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World\nHealth Organisation (WHO) has classified Nigeria and fifty-four other countries\nas facing the most severe health workforce challenges in relation to universal\nhealth coverage. Ostensibly acting on the WHO classification, the United\nKingdom has put Nigeria on a list of countries that it will not actively target\nfor recruitment of health and social care workers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A bill seeking to mandate Nigerian-trained medical and dental practitioners to practise in the country for at least five years as a condition for becoming fully licensed has been met with severe criticism. The bill which passed Second Reading in the House of Representatives on April 6, is sponsored by Hon. Abiodun Ganiyu Johnson (APC; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3222,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210\/revisions\/3222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}