A Senior Consultant Urologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) said decry the rate of internal brain drain in Nigeria, describing it as a major crisis.
According to him, “Training centres invest millions in producing specialists, only to lose them before they can serve as consultants, mentors, and researchers.
“Many Nigerian-trained specialists’ complete residency only to leave for better-paying positions in private hospitals or abroad. The rate at which our NAUS members leave after training is alarmingly high. We need them to stay with us even after training. Let’s try to keep them as much as we can.”
Also speaking, a Consultant Urologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and Senior Lecturer at LASUCOM, Dr. Abimbola Abolarinwa, observed that Nigerian surgeons shift internally because the system cannot support their expertise.
“We are training the world, but losing Nigeria, so why don’t we retain these people? Retain our surgeons going abroad, let the skill remain here, let the patients remain here. Nigeria has the talent; what it lacks is the ecosystem to keep them.
“If you must go, please return. We can’t stop movement, people have personal goals., but if you go, come back. Your families are here, your colleagues are here. Come back and establish something.
“Those that go make big sacrifices — new cultures, new systems. But if we had what they wanted here, they wouldn’t need to go.”
The President of the Association of Urological Surgeons of Nigeria, Professor Nuhu Dakum, said doctors are fleeing within Nigeria from insecure, underfunded, rural regions to safer, better-equipped states.
He said, “We are seeing doctors move within the country from one area to another in search of better pay, better working conditions, and above all, safety. Security is now a major factor. Where they know they’ll get better pay, they move, where they know they’ll get better conditions, they move, and now, security is a major factor.
“Doctors have been kidnapped, hospitals have been attacked, rural postings are seen as punishments, the result is that large swathes of the country are left with little to no specialist care.
“The few doctors left behind are overwhelmed, burnt out, and unable to deliver optimal treatment. We call on the government at all levels to fix security, welfare, and working conditions,” Dakum urged, noting that it is the only way to stop internal Japa.
On his part, the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, and Director Clinical Services and Training, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof Adebowale Adekoya, said Nigerian urologists are demonstrating skills in areas of their specialty, noting that some of the surgeries that people travel abroad for can now be carried out in the country.
“Some of these we call endo-urological surgeries and very rare urological surgeries, now also, with the assistance of robots. As we speak, we have been able to drive the system up to the point that the country can now boast of three robots spread across the country, two within Lagos and one in Abuja.
Adekoya said the Lagos State Government is adopting a proactive strategy to mitigate the effects of the ongoing japa phenomenon by dramatically increasing the production of specialized medical personnel and various cadres of health workers.
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