Resident doctors at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Awka, have called on governments at all levels to take deliberate steps to address the plague of brain drain in the medical service delivery.

The doctors made the call at the first Annual General Meeting and Academic Conference of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), COOUTH branch in Awka, at the weekend.

Nnaemeka Añunihu, the COOUTH ARD president, said the brain drain was biting hard on the sector.

Mr Añunihu said though brain drain was a third-world phenomenon, it had assumed an unacceptable dimension in Nigeria. 

He said the government should find out why practising outside the country became more attractive to doctors and other health professionals trained in Nigeria than at home.

“There are a number of factors influencing the exodus of doctors, including the push and the pull factors, wages, facilities, security and value for earned wages.

“Brain drain is a serious loss to us as a country because Nigerian doctors are some of the best across the world, so why would we not want to keep them here,” he said.

Mr Añunihu said the residency programme at COOUTH was not without the challenge of the programme elsewhere, even though the institution was state-owned.

He called for the domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act, which would create an air of certainty and encourage doctors to undergo training with the confidence that their fate was protected by law.

Princeton Okam, a consultant obstetrician at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, said brain drain was a plague bewitching the medical profession.

Mr Okam, the vice-chairman of Nigeria Medical Association, Anambra Branch, said the conversation on brain drain would continue to be on the front burner until the tide was checked. He said while the government had a big role, doctors should begin to think about how to address the problem.

“It is not a bed of roses anywhere. But there must be jobs after training. If better facilities are put in place, and remuneration is made competitive, I don’t think anybody would like to leave this country to practice elsewhere,” Mr Okam explained. “Truth is that those who wish to come back don’t have a place here because they have been displaced. They are trapped there. They have better training, but we can’t benefit from the brain gain.”

(NAN)