Ngeria has lost about 15,000 to 16,000 doctors to the Japa syndrome (migration) in the last five years.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate, disclosed this on Sunday, March 10, when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Pate said the brain drain syndrome has robbed the health sector of its best hands
The minister explained that there are 300,000 health professionals in Nigeria but only 55,000 of them are doctors.
He said, “There are about 300,000 health professionals working in Nigeria today in all cadres. I am talking about doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and others.
“We did an assessment and discovered we have 85,000 to 90,000 registered Nigerian doctors. Not all of them are in the country. Some are in the Diaspora, especially in the US and UK. But there are 55,000 licensed doctors in the country.
“The issue overall, in terms of health professionals, is that they are not enough. They are insufficient in terms of the skills mix. Can you believe most of the high skilled professional doctors are in Lagos, Abuja and a few urban centres? There is a huge distribution issue.