The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the National Hospital, Abuja (NHA), Professor Mahmud Raji, on Sunday disclosed that no fewer than 500 personnel of the hospital have resigned in the last two years.
Raji, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, hinted that most of them went abroad in search of better employment opportunities.
He stated, “The way they leave is a very hurtful thing for all hospital administrators. The most pitiful and worrisome aspect of it is the amount of money the Nigerian government has invested in each of these individuals either a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a physiotherapist or whoever it is that leaves.
Raji lamented that the brain drain syndrome has become a worrisome issue, stressing that almost every day, he treats two or three files of young people wishing to leave.
According to him, “Sometimes, not only young people; some people have actually gone through the ranks with lots of experience that they could teach other people. So, Nigeria is losing so much, painfully. Here, we have lost a number of quite senior doctors, especially the middle cadre doctors and the very young ones.
“Nurses have also left from the middle cadre and the younger ones. Some of our medical engineers are hotcakes outside and have left. I must tell you, Nigeria trains people so much; Nigerian graduates and staff are well sought after all over,” Raji added.
On reasons for their departure, he said that remuneration and job satisfaction had always topped the list, explaining that “if a doctor or a nurse comes here, he or she needs to see an environment that is quite serene and quite beautiful, even to rest in a very comfortable area during their one-hour break.
“At least you are able to have something to eat, replenish your energy before you go back to the next phase of work, but usually, in our hospitals in Nigeria, we don’t have such. In terms of the remuneration, it may not be as good as what you would expect elsewhere. Even though I must say the purchasing power in Nigeria is far better than the purchasing power elsewhere and our money is still able to buy something.
“We should also look at the unsolved problem of inter-professional rivalry that also eats into people’s psyche. People should be comfortable with the next person they’re working with, be it a nurse, a physiotherapist or whoever, “Raji posited.
The CMD also said that the necessary equipment needed to work was not there and when this equipment is either non-existent or obsolete, healthcare practitioners feel that more should have been done.
“From what we can all see, the current administration has actually rekindled that hope in us that in the next couple of months or a couple of years, we will be able to see a change or a shift in this mindset among Nigerian health professionals eager to leave the country. Hopefully, we should even be able to attract them to come back while we retain the ones that are here, “Raji added.
He, however, said that NHA had employed various strategies to try to retain the healthcare personnel working in its employ, stressing that “I may not be able to change their remuneration since this is within the purview of government; we try to pacify them because remuneration is usually the first thing people complain about.
“Secondly, in terms of welfare, at least we have tried as much as possible to relieve some of them. We have established cooperatives to assist staff, either financially or in whichever way they can be supported to get mortgages for their homes and other things, “Raji averred.
