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Nigeria, Africa’s largest country, is in dire need of doctors to meet the health needs of its citizens, official statistics show.
Only one medical doctor is available to cater for every 4,845 Nigerians, the official data sourced by PREMIUM TIMES show.
Nigeria’s population, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, was estimated at 193.4 million in 2016.
Meanwhile, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) in a response to a Freedom of Information request by PREMIUM TIMES showed that as at December 2017, Nigeria had 42,845 registered doctors, dentists and alternative medicine practitioners working in the country. Of these number, 39,912 are medical doctors.
Nigeria’s ratio of doctors to population is about eight times below the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients.
The data provided by the MDCN does not include the number of doctors and dentists who have left Nigeria to work abroad since 2017.
Exodus
PREMIUM TIMES in April last year reported on the mass emigration of doctors and health professionals in search of greener pastures.
The exodus has been a burning issue in the country with officials of the medical association providing contradictory data of their members still practicing in the country and those who have left.
As at the time of that report PREMIUM TIMES’ efforts to get official statistics of medical and dental practitioners practicing in the country and those who have left from MDCN were not successful.
However eight months after the report and a third FOI, the agency was able to provide some of the information required.
MDCN is the agency with the mandate to register and regulate the medical profession in Nigeria.
The agency, as part of its duty, is tasked with the responsibility of registering newly inducted doctors, renewing licences of doctors in the country and also keeping record of those leaving the country.
The agency is also meant to have a record of foreign doctors who come into the country to work.
Response
MDCN in its response signed by the registrar of the agency, Tajudeen Sanusi, said Nigeria has 42,845 doctors in the country.
In a breakdown, the agency stated that as at December 2017, registered doctors still practicing were 39,912, while registered dental practitioners stood at 2,901. It also said there were 32 registered alternative medicine practitioners as at January 9, 2019.
The agency said since its establishment (in 1963), 91,079 Nigerian medical and dental practitioners have been registered so far.
INFO-GRAPH: Nigeria gravely lacks doctors to address citizens’ health needs. [CREDIT: George Kaduna]
Giving a breakdown of the registrations, MDCN said it registered 86,722 medical doctors from 1963 to 2019. A total of 4,357 dentists were regisered from 1963 to 2019 while 32 alternative medicine practitioners were registered from 1992 till 2019, when they came under MDCN regulation.
However, MDCN could not provide the total number of Nigerian doctors and dentists, trained in Nigeria, but working outside the country.
This is unusual as Nigerian trained doctors going abroad to work usually collect a ‘letter of good standing’, which is a form of recommendation from the agency to the medical regulatory board of the country the medical practitioner is moving to.
But the MDCN directed the reporter to the health regulatory agencies in the various countries.
Alarming
With the statistics released by MDCN, it is safe to say the Nigerian health workforce is in dire need of urgent attention.
With the unchecked exodus of medical practitioners out of the country, Nigeria has a very long way to go to meet the WHO recommendation.
