A professor of public health, Akin Osibogun, has recommended an average monthly salary of N2.5 million to every consultant anaesthetist to retain them within Nigeria’s health system.

Mr Osibogun made the recommendation during the Nigerian Society of Anaesthetists (NSA) Annual Scientific Conference and general meeting on Wednesday in Lagos.

The NSA organised the event in collaboration with the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists.

The event had the theme, “Health Emergencies: The Role of the Anaesthetist”.

Mr Osibogun is a former chief medical director of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

He said that the intensity and duration of anaesthetists’ training demanded that the country should urgently invest more in training the specialists and institute favourable mechanisms to retain them.

According to him, anaesthetists are highly-trained specialists who can only be produced intentionally.

He noted a global shortage of anaesthetists.

He cited a 2022 NSA report that put the number of anaesthetists in Nigeria at 800, saying the figure was too small to serve Nigeria’s population of over 250 million.

The professor noted that the figure showed a ratio of one anaesthetist to 312,000 persons, as against the World Health Organisation’s recommended ratio of 1 to 3,000.

He defined anaesthesiology as the speciality of medicine in which practitioners manage anaesthesia and pain before, during and after medical procedures.

Mr Osibogun said that anaesthetists also played a crucial role in managing pain for patients with chronic conditions in intensive care units, as well as providing pain relief for women undergoing childbirth.

He said that anaesthesiologists’ training, particularly in areas of human anatomy, human physiology and pharmacology, placed them in a special position to manage medical emergencies.

An anaesthesiologist is always a medical doctor, while an anaesthetist can be a doctor or a specially-trained nurse.

Mr Osibogun said: “The anesthesiologist performs a critical role in resuscitation, stabilising and packaging injured or medically challenged patients as the need may be.

“It is his responsibility to identify the drugs, consumables and equipment required by him to efficiently discharge his responsibilities to save lives and to limit disability.”

Similarly, Alhassan Mohammed, president of NSA, said that the acute shortage of manpower and infrastructure was a major challenge faced by society, urging governments to holistically address the issues.

“The last time this was done was during the Obasanjo administration. They got it right by equipping most of the public hospitals, and that actually enhanced our training.

“When you put in the equipment, infrastructure, you are encouraging training; you are improving access to quality and affordable surgical care in every nook and cranny of the country.

“Now, the government must come up with a way to retain us, and retaining us is remuneration. If you don’t have good remuneration, you are likely to lose professionals to other climes.

“That is what is happening now. Most of our members are practising outside the country.

“Brain drain is affecting the health sector, but anaesthetists are the most affected practitioners.

“We are few, but we facilitate surgery, care of the critically ill. Right now, we have our members collapsing during work because they are stressed. They are fatigued.”

The president emphasised that many anaesthetists in diaspora would be willing to return to the country if the government could address the issues of remuneration and infrastructure.

Mr Mohammed said that the theme of the event was chosen to evolve new strategies to handle the rising number of emergencies, adding that the burden was worsening from conflicts across the country.

“Another health emergency is the increasing number of sudden collapses of apparently healthy citizens in public gatherings where bystanders do next to nothing.”

Mr Mohammed said the NSA had evolved strategies to equip the public with basic skills to perform high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation  to change the narrative.

Earlier, Claudiana Sanwo-Olu, wife of Lagos State governor, said the conference aligned with the state government’s ideology to provide quality healthcare services to patients.

Mrs Sanwo-Olu was represented by Waidat Mustafa, wife of the permanent secretary, Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board.

She reaffirmed the state’s commitment to ensuring that all healthcare workers would be well remunerated and adequately trained and retrained.

This, she said, would assist the professionals to continue to adapt to new realities and give their best.

(NAN)